[21] Meyer, ‘Igorrotes von Luzon,’ in Verhandl. Berliner Gesellsch. f. Anthrop. 1883, p. 384 sq. Blumentritt, Ethnographie der Philippinen, p. 27.
[22] Westermarck, op. cit. p. 64 sq. Holden, in Taplin, Folklore of the South Australian Aborigines, p. 19.
[23] It is strange to hear from a modern student of anthropology, and especially from an Australian writer, that in sexual licence the savage has never anything to learn and that “all that the lower fringe of civilised men can do to harm the uncivilised is to stoop to the level of the latter instead of teaching them a better way” (Sutherland, Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, i. 186). Mr. Edward Stephens (‘Aborigines of Australia,’ in Jour. & Proceed. Royal Soc. N. S. Wales, xxiii. 480) has a very different story to tell with reference to the tribes which once inhabited the Adelaide Plains in South Australia and whose acquaintance he made more than half a century ago.
[24] Westermarck, op. cit. pp. 23, 24, 71.
Among the East African Takue a seducer may have to pay the same sum as if he had killed the girl, although the fine is generally reduced to fifty cows.[25] Among the Beni Amer and Marea he is killed, together with the girl and the child.[26] In Tessaua a fine of 100,000 kurdi is imposed on the father of a bastard child.[27] Among the Beni Mzab a man who seduces a girl has to pay two hundred francs and is banished for four years.[28] Among the Tedâ he is exposed to the revenge of her father.[29] The Baziba look upon illegitimate intercourse between the sexes as the most serious offence, though no action is taken until the birth of a child; “then the man and woman are bound hand and foot and thrown into Lake Victoria.”[30] Among the Bakoki, whilst the girl was driven from home and remained for ever after an outcast, the man was fined three cows to her father and one to the chief.[31] Certain West African savages described by Mr. Winwood Reade, who banish from the clan a girl guilty of wantonness, inflict severe flogging on the seducer.[32] In Dahomey a man who seduces a girl is compelled by law to marry her and to pay eighty cowries to the parent or master.[33] Among some Kafir tribes the father or guardian of a woman who becomes pregnant can demand a fine of one head of cattle from the father of the child;[34] whilst in the Gaika tribe the mere seduction of a virgin incurs the fine of three or four head of cattle.[35] Casalis mentions an interesting custom prevalent among the Basutos, which on the one hand illustrates the belief that sexual intercourse in certain circumstances exposes a person to supernatural danger, and on the other hand indicates that unchastity in unmarried men is not looked upon with perfect indifference:—Immediately after the birth of a child the fire of the dwelling was kindled afresh. “For this purpose it was necessary that a young man of chaste habits should rub two pieces of wood quickly one against another, until a flame sprung up, pure as himself. It was firmly believed that a premature death awaited him who should dare to take upon himself this office, after having lost his innocence. As soon, therefore, as a birth was proclaimed in the village, the fathers took their sons to undergo the ordeal. Those who felt themselves guilty confessed their crime, and submitted to be scourged rather than expose themselves to the consequences of a fatal temerity.”[36] Livingstone, speaking of the good name which was given to him by the Bakwains, observes:—“No one ever gains much influence in this country without purity and uprightness. The acts of a stranger are keenly scrutinised by both young and old, and seldom is the judgment pronounced, even by the heathen, unfair or uncharitable. I have heard women speaking in admiration of a white man, because he was pure, and never was guilty of any secret immorality. Had he been, they would have known it, and, untutored heathen though they be, would have despised him in consequence.”[37]
[25] Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 208.
[26] Ibid. p. 322.
[27] Barth, Reisen in Nord- und Central-Afrika, ii. 18.
[28] Chavanne, Die Sahara, p. 315.
[29] Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, i. 449.