We are informed that wherever certain vices prevail among the lower races in America, Africa, or Asia, they have been carried to them by the whites. Were it necessary to do so, scores of examples could be adduced going to show that among primitive tribes, until corrupted by our later civilization, chastity is the universal rule.
Although many of the writers who have dealt with this subject have discoursed freely on the laxity of the conjugal bond among so-called primitive tribes, and the lawlessness which characterizes lower races in their sexual relations, they have failed to account satisfactorily for some of the customs and usages which appear connected with many of the early forms of marriage,—forms which would seem to indicate a degree of modest reserve on the part of these peoples which fail to comport with the popular theory concerning their lawlessness and innate indecency.
We have seen that although among the orders of life below mankind there are no arbitrary laws governing the relations of the sexes, there nevertheless exists a system of natural marriage which in no wise resembles promiscuity. Now it was under this natural system controlled by the higher instincts developed within the female organism, that the extreme “lawlessness” indicated by the savants prevailed—lawlessness seeming to denote that state of female independence in which women were personally free, or in which they were not held in actual bondage as captive wives. In the reasoning of many of our guides in this matter it is implied, if not actually asserted, that the freedom of women which is now known to have prevailed in earlier times denotes a state of laxity in morals, a condition of society directly contrary to the facts which they themselves have recorded relative to existing tribes under less advanced conditions of life, and which would seem to argue for these peoples a sense of decency which among the masses in civilized countries is almost entirely wanting. At the dawn of human existence, had no higher instincts been developed than passion, or the desire for selfish gratification, whence could have arisen this reserve, and these ideas of chastity and modesty which are observed among many of the less developed peoples, notably those which have not come in contact with the higher races? Upon this subject Mr. Tylor remarks: “Yet even among the rudest clans of men, unless depraved by vice or misery and falling to pieces, a standard of family morals is known and lived by.”[73]
Observing the habits of the lower animals, Mr. Darwin cannot believe that promiscuous intercourse prevailed among the early races of mankind.
At a very early period, before man attained to his present rank in the scale, many of his conditions would be different from what now obtains amongst savages. Judging from the analogy of the lower animals he would then either live with a single female, or be a polygamist.[74]
We have much evidence going to prove that the marriage contracts among the lower races are well kept. According to Cook, in Tahiti, although nothing more is necessary for the consummation of a valid marriage than an agreement between the parties, these contracts are usually well kept. In case of the disaffection of either party, a divorce is easily obtained. We are assured, however, that although the Tahiti women have the undisputed right to dissolve the marriage contract at will, they are nevertheless “as faithful to their husbands as in any part of the world.” The Veddahs, who are ranked among the most primitive races, are a strictly monogamous people.[75] Of the extreme modesty of married pairs among many of the lower races we have much proof. Among the Fijians, husbands and wives do not usually spend the night together, except as it were by stealth, and it is said to be contrary to their ideas of delicacy that they should sleep under the same roof.[76] Wholly from a sense of reserve or modesty, the Arab wife remains for months, possibly for a whole year, with her mother before taking up her abode in her husband’s tent. The extreme delicacy of the customs regulating the behaviour of married pairs in ancient Sparta are well understood. According to Xenophon and Strabo, it was the custom, not only among the Spartans but among the Cretans also, for married pairs to meet clandestinely. The same custom prevailed in ancient Lycia. Lafitau says that among the North American Indians the husband visits his wife only by stealth.[77]
It is stated by trustworthy authorities that among various tribes, during the period of gestation and lactation, the person of the wife is sacred; that the rule of chastity, or continence, between married pairs, during this season, is absolutely inviolate. In Fiji, women furnish natural nourishment to their children for three or four years, during which time their persons are respected.
The relatives of the women take it as a public insult if any child should be born before the customary three or four years have elapsed, and they consider themselves in duty bound to avenge it in an equally public manner.
Mr. Seeman says:
I heard of a white man, who, being asked how many brothers and sisters he had, frankly replied, “ten.” “But that could not be,” was the rejoinder of the natives, “one mother could scarcely have so many children.”