[121] Emin Pasha in Central Africa, p. 87. Wilson and Felkin, Uganda, ii. 49.
[122] Egede, Description of Greenland, p. 141.
[123] Cranz, History of Greenland, i. 176.
[124] Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, p. 375.
[125] Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 365.
[126] Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 676, 659.
[127] Garcilasso de la Vega, First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, i. 321 sq.
[128] Herrera, General History of the West Indies, iv. 340.
[129] Dufour, Histoire de la prostitution, passim. Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese, i. 348. Wilkins, Modern Hinduism, p. 412. Polak, ‘Die Prostitution in Persien,’ in Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, xi. 516, 517, 563 sqq. Lane, Modern Egyptians, i. 150. Weinhold, Altnordisches Leben, p. 259 (ancient Scandinavians). Desmaze, Les pénalités anciennes, p. 61 sq. n. 4; Mackintosh, History of Civilisation in Scotland, i. 428 (Middle Ages); &c. Since the thirteenth century even the Church tolerated the establishment of brothels in the larger cities (Müller, Das sexuelle Leben der christlichen Kulturvölker, p. 149).
There is, moreover, a form of religious prostitution, just as there is religious celibacy. In fact, the two customs are sometimes very closely connected with one another. Among the Ew̔e-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast the chief business of the female kosi, or wife of the god to whom she is dedicated, is prostitution. “In every town there is at least one institution in which the best-looking girls, between ten and twelve years of age, are received. Here they remain for three years, learning the chants and dances peculiar to the worship of the gods, and prostituting themselves to the priests and the inmates of the male seminaries; and at the termination of their novitiate they become public prostitutes. This condition, however, is not regarded as one for reproach; they are considered to be married to the god, and their excesses are supposed to be caused and directed by him. Properly speaking, their libertinage should be confined to the male worshippers at the temple of the god, but practically it is indiscriminate. Children who are born from such unions belong to the god.”[130] So also the priestesses on the Gold Coast, though not allowed to marry, are by no means debarred from sexual intercourse. They “are ordinarily most licentious, and custom allows them to gratify their passions with any man who may chance to take their fancy. A priestess who is favourably impressed by a man sends for him to her house, and this command he is sure to obey, through fear of the consequences of exciting her anger. She then tells him that the god she serves has directed her to love him, and the man thereupon lives with her until she grows tired of him, or a new object takes her fancy. Some priestesses have as many as half a dozen men in their train at one time, and may on great occasions be seen walking in state, followed by them. Their life is one continual record of debauchery and sensuality, and when excited by the dance they frequently abandon themselves to the wildest excesses.”[131] It seems that the “wife” of the Egyptian god at Thebes also in time became a libertine; Strabo tells us that the beautiful woman who was dedicated to him had sexual intercourse with any man she chose “till the natural purification of her body took place,” after which she was given to a man.[132] In India every Hindu temple of any importance has its dancing girls, whose position is inferior only to that of the sacrificers.[133] Thus at Jŭgŭnnat’hŭ-kshŭtrŭ in Orissa a number of women of infamous character are employed to dance and sing before the god. They live in separate houses, not at the temple. The Brahmins who officiate there continually have adulterous connections with them, and these women also prostitute themselves to visitors.[134] In the Canaanitish cults there were women, called ḳedēshōth, who were consecrated to the deity with whose temple they were associated, and who at the same time acted as prostitutes.[135] At the local shrines of North Israel the worship of Yahveh itself was deeply affected by these practices;[136] but they were forbidden in the Deuteronomic code.[137] Perhaps this temple prostitution may be accounted for by a belief that it bestowed blessings upon the worshippers. According to notions which prevail to this day in countries with Semitic culture, sexual intercourse with a holy person is regarded as beneficial to him or her who indulges in it.[138]