[97] Nansen, First Crossing of Greenland, i. 316 sqq.
[98] Athenæus, Deipnosophistæ, xiii. 16.
Where marriage is the customary form of sexual intercourse pre-nuptial incontinence in a woman, as suggesting lack of coyness and modesty, is therefore apt to disgrace her. At the same time it is a disgrace to, and consequently an offence against, her family, especially where the ties of kinship are strong. Moreover, where wives are purchased the unchaste girl, by lowering her market value, deprives her father or parents of part of their property. Among the Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, says Major Ellis, “chastity per se is not understood. An unmarried girl is expected to be chaste because virginity possesses a marketable value, and were she to be unchaste her parents would receive little and perhaps no head-money for her.”[99] Among the Rendile of Eastern Africa, we are told, the unchastity of unmarried girls meets with severe retribution, the girl invariably being driven out from her home, for the sole and simple reason that her market value to her parents has been decreased.[100] The same commercial point of view is expressed in the Mosaic rule:—“If a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.”[101] But the girl is not the only offender. Whilst the disgrace of incontinence falls on her alone, the offence against her relatives is divided between her and the seducer. Speaking of the presents which, among the Thlinkets, a man is bound to give to the parents of the girl whom he has seduced, Sir James Douglas observes, “The offender is simply regarded as a robber, who has committed depredation on their merchandise, their only anxiety being to make the damages exacted as heavy as possible.”[102] Marriage by purchase has thus raised the standard of female chastity, and also, to some extent, checked the incontinence of the men. But it can certainly not be regarded as the sole cause of the duty of chastity where such a duty is recognised by savages. Among the Veddahs, who do not make their daughters objects of traffic,[103] the unmarried girls are nevertheless protected by their natural guardians “with the keenest sense of honour.”[104] In many of the instances quoted above where a seduction is followed by more or less serious consequences for the seducer, the penalty he has to pay is evidently something else than the mere market value of the girl.
[99] Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, p. 286.
[100] Chanler, Through Jungle and Desert, p. 317.
[101] Exodus, xxii. 16 sq.
[102] Douglas, quoted by Petroff, op. cit. p. 177.
[103] Le Mesurier, ‘Veddás of Ceylon,’ in Jour. Roy. Asiatic Soc. Ceylon Branch, ix. 340. Hartshorne, ‘Weddas,’ in Indian Antiquary, viii. 320.
[104] Nevill, ‘Vaeddas of Ceylon,’ in Taprobanian, i. 178.
Thus the men, by demanding that the women whom they marry shall be virgins, indirectly give rise to the demand that they themselves shall abstain from certain forms of incontinence. From my collection of facts relating to savages I find that in the majority of cases where chastity is required of unmarried girls the seducer also is considered guilty of a crime. But, as was just pointed out, his act is judged from a more limited point of view. It is chiefly, if not exclusively, regarded as an offence against the parents or family of the girl; chastity per se is hardly required of savage men. Where prostitution exists they may without censure gratify their passions among its victims. Now, to anybody who duly reflects upon the matter it is clear that the seducer does a wrong to the woman also; but I find no indication that this idea occurs at all to the savage mind. Where the seducer is censured the girl also is censured, being regarded not as the injured party but as an injurer. Even in the case of rape the harm done to the girl herself is little thought of. Among the Tonga Islanders “rape, providing it be not upon a married woman or one to whom respect is due on the score of superior rank from the perpetrator, is considered not as a crime but as a matter of indifference.”[105] The same is the case in the Pelew Islands.[106] In the laws of the Rejangs of Sumatra referring to this offence, “there is hardly anything considered but the value of the girl’s person to her relations, as a mere vendible commodity.”[107] Among the Asiniboin, a Siouan tribe, the punishment for rape is based on the principle that the price of the woman has been depreciated, that the chances of marriage have been lessened, and that the act is an insult to her kindred, as implying contempt of their feelings and their power of protection.[108] Even the Teutons in early days hardly severed rape from abduction, the kinsmen of the woman feeling themselves equally wronged in either case.[109] If the girl’s feelings are thus disregarded when she is an unwilling victim of violence, it can hardly be expected that she should be an object of pity when she is a consenting partner. Does not public opinion in the midst of civilisation turn against the dishonoured rather than the dishonourer?