London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. 4

by Henry Mayhew

The venereal disease is known in most parts of Hindustan. Some, with little reason, suppose it was carried there after the discovery of America. Had it been so, its introduction would probably have been noticed in history or by some tradition. It is not, indeed, called by any Sanscrit word, but is known by a Persian name[73].

Of Prostitution in Ceylon.

In Ceylon the influence of Christianity, accompanied by the moral law of England, is working a reform in the manners of large classes among the people. Under the original institutions of the Singhalese, they never licensed public prostitution; and whatever effect the Buddhist religion produced, it produced in the cause of virtue. The temples were never made brothels; but the character of the people is naturally sensual, and the capital vices of society widely prevail among them. The Buddhist code, indeed, abounds with precepts inculcating not only chastity, but rigid continence. Profligacy, however, among the men, and want of chastity among the women, are general characteristics of all classes, from the highest to the humblest caste. To this day the disregard of virtue is a crying sin of the women, even of those who profess Christianity. Murders often occur from the jealousy of husbands or lovers detecting their wives or mistresses with a paramour.

In Ceylon, as in continental India, the division of castes is by the ancient and sacred law absolute, though custom sometimes infringes the enactments of the holy code. Marriage from a higher into a lower caste is peremptorily forbidden; though occasionally it is tolerated, but never approved, between a man of honourable and a woman of inferior rank. If a female of noble blood engage in a criminal intrigue with a plebeian, his life has on many occasions been sacrificed to wash out the stain, and formerly hers was also required to obliterate the disgrace. A recent and striking instance of this kind came to the knowledge of Mr. Charles Sirr. The daughter of a high-caste Kandian, enjoying the liberty which in Ceylon is allowed to women of all grades, became attached to a young man of lower caste, and entreated her parents’ consent to the match, begging them to excuse her for her affection’s sake, and declaring she could not live unless permitted to fulfil the design on which her heart was set. They refused, and, though the petition was again and again renewed, remained obdurate in their denial. The girl was some time after found to have sacrificed her honour to the man whom she loved, but dared not wed. He was all the while willing and desirous to marry her, and would have married her then, but her parents were inexorable. To preserve the honour of the family, the father slew his daughter with his own hand. The English authorities at once arrested the murderer, brought him to trial, and condemned him to death. He resolutely asserted his right to do as he pleased with the girl, protesting against any judicial interference of the English with his family arrangements. He was, nevertheless, executed, as a warning; and several of these examples have had a most salutary influence in restraining the passions of the natives in various parts of the island. It was undoubtedly the man’s sense of honour that impelled him to murder his daughter; and she was thus the victim of caste prejudices, which in Ceylon are so rigid that a man could not force his slave to marry into a rank below him, whether free-born or otherwise.

In Ceylon, as in most other parts of Asia, marriages are contracted at a very early age. A man, by the law, “attains his majority” when sixteen years old, and thenceforward is released from paternal control; all engagements, however, which he may form previous to that time, without the consent of his friends in authority, are null and void. A girl, as soon as she is marriageable according to nature, is marriageable according to law; and her parents, or, if she be an orphan, her nearest kindred, give a feast—grand or humble, according to their means—when she is introduced to a number of unmarried male friends. If she be handsome or rich, a crowd of suitors is sure to be attracted. Free as women are in Ceylon after their marriage, they are rarely consulted beforehand on the choice of a partner. That is settled for the girl. To this custom much of the immorality prevalent in the island, as well as in all parts of the East, may without a doubt be ascribed. Where the sexes are not free to form what lawful unions they please, it may be taken as an axiom that they will have recourse to irregular intrigues.

When the feast is given at which a young girl is introduced as marriageable—a custom very similar in form and object to that which obtains in our own country—numerous young unmarried men of the same caste are invited to the house. In a short time after, a relative or friend of any young man who may desire to take the maiden as his wife, calls upon her family, and insinuates that a rumour of the intended union is flying abroad. If this be denied, quietly or otherwise, the match-maker loses no time in withdrawing; but if it is answered in a jocular bantering strain, he takes his leave, with many compliments, to announce his reception to the father of the bridegroom. This personage, after a day or two, makes his call, inquires into the amount of the marriage dowry, and carries the negotiation a few steps further. Mutual visits are exchanged, and all arrangements made, with great precision. The mother of the young man, with several other matrons, take the girl into an inner room, where she is stripped, and her person examined, to see that it is free from any corporal defect, from ulcers, and from any cutaneous disease. Should this investigation prove satisfactory, numerous formalities succeed, and an auspicious day is fixed upon for the wedding. This takes place with much ceremony, the stars being in all things consulted. Should the bridegroom’s horoscope refuse to agree with that of the bride, his younger brother may wed her for him by a species of proxy. The whole is a tedious succession of formal observances, not so much the ordinance of religion as the details of an ancient ritual etiquette. This is the Buddhaical custom; but it is immensely expensive, and cannot be followed by the very poor classes. It is also forbidden to people of extremely low caste, even though they should be wealthy enough to afford, or sufficiently improvident to risk it. Among the humble and indigent the marriage is confirmed by the mutual consent of the parents and the young couple passing a night together.

One of the most remarkable features in the social aspect of Ceylon is the institution of polyandrism, which among the Kandians is permitted and practised to a great extent. A Kandian matron of high caste is sometimes the wife of eight brothers. The custom is justified upon various grounds. Sirr expressed to a Kandian chief of no mean rank his abhorrence of this revolting practice. The man was surprised at these sentiments, and replied that on the contrary it was an excellent custom. Among the rich it prevented litigation; it saved property from minute subdivision; it concentrated family influence. Among the poor it was absolutely necessary, for several brothers could not each maintain a separate wife, or bear the expense of a whole family, which jointly they could easily do. The offspring of these strange unions call all the brothers alike their fathers, though preference is given to the eldest, and are equal heirs to the family property; should litigation, however, arise concerning the inheritance, they often all claim the senior brother as a parent, and the Kandian laws recognise this claim.

Although, when a plurality of husbands is adopted, they are usually brothers, a man may, with the woman’s consent, bring home another, who enjoys all the marital rights, and is called an associated husband. In fact, the first may, subject to his wife’s pleasure, bring home as many strangers as he pleases, and the children inherit their property equally. It is rare, however, to meet one of these associated husbands among the Kandians of higher and purer caste, though two or more brothers continually marry the same woman. This revolting custom is now confined to the province of Kandy, though some writers assert that it was formerly prevalent throughout the maritime districts. In these, however, monogamy is at present practised, except by the Mohammedans, who are polygamists. Statements to the contrary have been laid before us; but Sirr positively asserts that he never saw a Kandian or Singhalese who had acknowledged himself to have more than a single wife. The Muslims, though long settled in the island, preserve their peculiar characteristics, their religion, habits, and manners, which they have not communicated to the rest of the population.

There are two kinds of marriage in Kandy, the one called “Bema,” the other “Deega.” In the first of these the husband goes to live at his wife’s residence, and the woman shares with her brothers the family inheritance. He, however, who is married after this fashion, enjoys little respect from his bride’s relations; and if he gives offence to her father, or the head of the household, may be at once ejected from the abode. In reference to this precarious and doubtful lodgement there is an ancient proverb still popular in Kandy. It says that a man wedded according to the Bema process should only take to his bride’s dwelling four articles of property—a pair of sandals to protect his feet, a palm-leaf to shield his head from the fiery rays of the sun, a walking staff to support him if he be sick, and a lantern to illuminate his path should he chance to be ejected during darkness. He may thus be prepared to depart at any hour of the day or night.

Deega, the other kind of marriage, is that in which the wife passes from underneath the parental roof to dwell in her husband’s own house. In this case she relinquishes all claim to a share in her family inheritance, but acquires a contingent right to some of her husband’s property. The man’s authority is, under this form of contract, far greater than under that of Bema. He cannot be divorced without his own consent, while, in the other case, separation, as we have seen, is a summary process, entirely depending on the caprice of the woman or her family. In a country where the female population is considerably less numerous than the male, and where women generally enjoy much freedom, a certain degree of indulgence will always be granted to the fickle quality in their character. In Ceylon this liberty in the one sex involves a certain kind of slavery in the other. Women frequently seek for divorces upon the most frivolous and trifling pretexts, and as these are too easily attainable by the simple return of the marriage gifts, they continually occur. Should a child be born within nine months from the day of the final separation, the husband is bound to maintain it for the first three years of its life, after which it is considered sufficiently old to be taken from its mother. If, however, while under the marriage pledge, the woman defiles herself by adultery, the husband, if with his own eyes he was the witness of her infidelity, might with his own hands, under the native law, take away the life of her paramour. Notwithstanding this terrible privilege, it is asserted with consistency by many authorities that, in all parts of Ceylon, from the highest to the lowest caste, the want of conjugal faith in the married, and chastity in the unmarried people, is frightful to consider. When a man puts away his wife for adulterous intrigue, he may disinherit her and the whole of her offspring, notwithstanding that he may feel and acknowledge them all to be his own children. When, however, he seeks a divorce from caprice, he renounces all claim to his wife’s inheritance or actual property, and must divide with her whatever may have been jointly accumulated during the period of their cohabitation. The men of Ceylon do not always, however, exercise their privileges. They are generally very indulgent husbands. Many of them, indeed, are uxorious to an offensive extreme, and forgive offences which, by most persons, are held unpardonable. A short time since a Kandian applied to the British judicial authorities to compel the return to him and his children of an unfaithful wife, who had deserted her home for that of a paramour. The husband pleaded his love for her, implored her for her children’s sake to come back, and promised to forgive her offence; but she turned away from him, and coolly asked the judge if he could force her to return. He answered that unfortunately he could not, but advised her to return to the home of her lawful partner, who was ready to forgive and embrace her. She disregarded equally the entreaties of the one and the exhortation of the other, and returned to her paramour, whom she shortly afterwards deserted for another.