[139] Sachau, Muhammedanisches Recht nach Schafiitischer Lehre, pp. 809, 818:—“Sodomita si muḥṣan (that is, a married person in possession of full civic rights) est punitur lapidatione, si non est muḥṣan punitur et flagellatione et exsilio.”
[140] Burton, Arabian Nights, x. 224.
[141] Polak, in Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, xi. 628 sq.
[142] Baumann, in Verhandl. Berliner Gesellsch. Anthrop. 1899, p. 669.
[143] Chevers, op. cit. p. 708. Burton, Arabian Nights, x. 222 sqq.
[144] Burton, Arabian Nights, x. 237.
[145] Laws of Manu, xi. 175. Cf. Institutes of Vishnu, liii. 4; Âpastamba, i. 9. 26. 7; Gautama, xxv. 7.
Chinese law makes little distinction between unnatural and other sexual offences. An unnatural offence is variously considered according to the age of the patient, and whether or not consent was given. If the patient be an adult, or a boy over the age of twelve, and consent, the case is treated as a slightly aggravated form of fornication, both parties being punished with a hundred blows and one month’s cangue, whilst ordinary fornication is punished with eighty blows. If the adult or boy over twelve resist, the offence is considered as rape; and if the boy be under twelve, the offence is rape irrespective of consent or resistance, unless the boy has previously gone astray.[146] But, as a matter of fact, unnatural offences are regarded as less hurtful to the community than ordinary immorality,[147] and pederasty is not looked down upon. “L’opinion publique reste tout à fait indifférente à ce genre de distraction et la morale ne s’en émeut en rien: puisque cela plaît à l’opérateur et que l’opéré est consentant, tout est pour le mieux; la loi chinoise n’aime guère à s’occuper des affaires trop intimes. La pédérastie est même considérée comme une chose de bon ton, une fantaisie dispendieuse et partout un plaisir élégant…. La pédérastie a une consécration officielle en Chine. Il existe, en effet, des pédérés pour l’Empereur.”[148] Indeed, the only objection which Dr. Matignon has heard to be raised to pederasty by public opinion in China is that it has a bad influence on the eyesight.[149] In Japan there was no law against homosexual intercourse till the revolution of 1868.[150] In the period of Japanese chivalry it was considered more heroic if a man loved a person of his own sex than if he loved a woman; and nowadays people are heard to say that in those provinces of the country where pederasty is widely spread the men are more manly and robust than in those where it does not prevail.[151]
[146] Alabaster, Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law, p. 367 sqq. Ta Tsing Leu Lee, Appendix, no. xxxii. p. 570.
[147] Alabaster, op. cit. p. 369.