The History of Prostitution Part 41

The opportunities of information and particular inquiry were, however, not very great, owing to the more important political objects of the visit, and the not very protracted stay of the squadron in j.a.pan.

Not content with the excess of incontinence in which the j.a.panese as a nation indulge, they largely practice unnatural vices, and the youth of the province of Kioto, which is the peculiar appanage of the spiritual emperor, are celebrated on account of their beauty, and command a high price in this horrid traffic.

TARTAR RACES.

Central Asia is but little known and seldom visited. Among the most remarkable of its people are the Kirghiz Kazaks, who form a nation of shepherds. They dwell in huts, or temporary habitations of wicker-work covered with fleeces, and are a robust, hardy race, addicted to sensual enjoyments. Their manners as to the treatment of the female s.e.x are coa.r.s.e, but it is curious to remark that, while the men are indolent and licentious, the women are fond of exertion, for which their only recompense is to be treated as slaves.

The Kirghiz, when rich enough, eagerly avail themselves of the privilege of polygamy; indeed, this part of the Mohammedan creed is the one they have embraced with most ardor, yet few possess sufficient wealth to marry more than one wife. The price paid for a woman will range from five or six sheep among the poorer cla.s.ses, to two hundred, five hundred, or even a thousand horses among the rich, to which are added different household effects, and occasionally a few male or female slaves. A considerable share of these payments is absorbed by the Mohammedan moolahs, who find a profitable source of revenue in marrying these people. They consecrate the union as soon as projected, and immediately the amount of the _kalym_, or price, has been arranged between the parties, the moolah solemnly asks the parents of the bride and bridegroom, "Do you consent to the union of the children?" repeating the question three times to each, and then reading prayers for the happiness of the couple to be married. No marriage is complete till the whole of the stipulated amount is paid, but neither party can honorably retract after the first installment has been offered and accepted. From that time the bridegroom has leave to visit his bride, if he engages not to take away her chast.i.ty. In cases where this liberty leads to an antic.i.p.ation of the final ceremony, the unpaid portion of the _kalym_ is not allowed to protract the union, which is hastened as much as possible. If a man find his wife to have been incontinent before he married her, he may return her to her parents, and demand the rest.i.tution of her price, or the subst.i.tution of one of her sisters. If he actually detects her in the commission of adultery, he may kill her, otherwise the adulterer is fined, and the wife may be divorced or chastised.

The morals of the Kirghiz are good. Chast.i.ty in the woman is highly prized, and the sensuality of the men is served by prost.i.tutes, who live in each camp, either in companies or in separate tents. Numbers of these women appear wherever the Russians have encampments, and virulent disease among them has tended rapidly to thin the people. The prost.i.tutes are composed of two cla.s.ses--widows and divorced women, who have no other means of subsistence, and linger out a miserable life in dirt, rags, and contempt; and a few who addict themselves to prost.i.tution from mere licentiousness.

CIRCa.s.sIA.

The race known as Aba.s.sians, considered the aborigines of the Caucasus, were described by Strabo as a predatory people--pirates at sea, and robbers on land. These characteristics they preserve to the present day, but otherwise they are a virtuous nation, strange to the worst vices of civilized life, and humble in their desires. Their religion permits polygamy, but as wives are costly, they are usually contented with one, who is the companion rather than the menial of her husband. The women are industrious, are allowed full liberty, and are free in their social intercourse, the veil being worn only to screen their complexions, and not for seclusion.

Their laws against immorality are stringent. An act of illicit intercourse is punished by fine or banishment. A dishonest wife is returned to her parents, and by them sold as a slave, as is also a wanton girl.

Illegitimate children can not claim any relationship, and if sold as slaves or a.s.sa.s.sinated, no one is expected to redeem them in the one case, or avenge them in the other. When a man desires to divorce his wife, he must give his reasons before a council of elders, and if they are not satisfied, he must pay her parents a stated amount to recompense them for the burden thus thrown upon them. Should the woman marry again within two years, this sum is returned.

Among the Circa.s.sians themselves women are not secluded. A man will often introduce his wife and daughters to a traveler, and unmarried women are frequently seen at public a.s.semblies. They observe one singular custom: a husband never appears abroad with his wife, and scarcely ever sees her during the day. This is in accordance with ancient habits, and is a prolongation of the marriage etiquette, which requires a man, after he has removed his bride's corset of leather, worn by all virgins, for some time to refrain from openly living with her.

Throughout the Caucasus a high state of morality is found. Open prost.i.tution is unknown, and any girl leading a notoriously immoral life would be compelled to fly beyond the bounds of the territory, if she escaped being sold as a slave or put to death by her indignant friends.

There is a general opinion that Circa.s.sians will sell their daughters to any Turk or Persian who wishes to buy them, but this is not the fact. They are particularly careful as to the position of any one who wishes to intermarry with them. Great precautions are taken to insure the happiness of the girls, and long-continued negotiations frequently lead to no result. The majority of females sold as Circa.s.sians are either children stolen from the neighboring Cossacks, or slaves procured from those Circa.s.sian traders who own allegiance to Russia.

TURKEY.

Proud, sensual, and depraved in his tastes, the Turk is too indolent to acquire even the means of gratifying his most powerful cravings.

Satisfying his pride with the memory of former glories, his l.u.s.t looks forward to the enjoyment of a paradise crowded with beautiful ministers of pleasure, and he pa.s.ses his time in an atmosphere of Epicurean speculation, lounging on cushions and sipping coffee with a dreamy indifference to all external objects. Even the poor indulge in this idleness. They measure the amount of labor necessary to keep them from positive want, and spend the rest of their time waiting the sensual heaven promised by their prophet. In such a lethargy the most violent pa.s.sions are fostered, and when these become excited the Turk can not be surpa.s.sed in brutal fury. All his fancies are gross; moral power is an incomprehensible idea, and he can conceive no authority not enforced by whip or sword.

The Turkish character thus exhibited corresponds with their estimate of the female s.e.x. The person alone is loved; intellect in a Turkish woman is rarely developed and never prized. She finds her chief employment in decorating her person, her sole enjoyment in lounging on a pile of cushions, and admiring the elegance of her costume. Turkey is literally the empire of the senses.

Polygamy is now growing into disrepute there. Recent laws have conferred many privileges upon women in matters of property, and their comparative independence has rendered them averse to a position in which they only acquire secondary rank. Men who marry wives of equal rank to themselves frequently engage in their marriage contracts not to form a second alliance, and this stipulation is very seldom violated.

The customs of the country do not permit a man to see his wife before marriage. She may gratify her curiosity by a stealthy glance at him, but this privilege is seldom used. In consequence of the separation of the s.e.xes, a race of professional match-makers has arisen, as in China, who realize considerable profits from their calling. Children of three or four years old are sometimes betrothed, marriage taking place about fourteen.

When a wedding is contemplated, each family deputes an agent to arrange preliminaries, the terms of the contract are embodied in a legal doc.u.ment, and the woman is then called "a wife by writing." This is concluded some days before the actual wedding, but the interval is occupied with rejoicings and hospitality, on which the bridegroom generally expends a year's income. The union is a mere civil contract blessed by religious rites. All concubines are slaves, even in the harem of the sultan, since no free Turkish woman can occupy that position.

The morals of Turkish women are generally described as very loose. Their veils favor an intrigue, the most jealous husband pa.s.sing his wife in the street without knowing her. The places of a.s.signation are usually the Jews' shops, where they meet their lovers, but preserve their _incognito_ even to them. Lady Mary Wortley Montague imagined "the number of faithful wives to be very small in a country where they have nothing to fear from a lover's indiscretion."

The dancing girls of Turkey are prost.i.tutes by profession. Their performances are much enjoyed by all cla.s.ses, and they dance as lasciviously in the harem, where they are often invited to amuse the wives and concubines, as before a party of convivialists in the kiosks. Their costume is exceedingly rich, both in color and material. During the day they resort to coffee-houses, where they attach themselves to companions whom they entertain with songs, tales, or caresses until night, when their orgies are transferred to houses belonging to their chiefs. Many of these habitations are furnished with every possible luxury.

Another form of prost.i.tution is temporary marriage. For instance, a man on a journey will arrive in a strange city, where he desires to remain some time. He immediately bargains for a female companion, a regular agreement is drawn up, and he supports her and remunerates her friends while he remains. When he is tired of her, or wishes to leave the place, she returns to her friends, and patiently waits for another engagement of the same kind.

NORTHERN AFRICA.

A very brief notice only is required of the semi-barbarous states of Northern Africa, particularly as an account of Algeria under the French has already been given. The ma.s.s of the population are Moors, and therefore our remarks will mainly apply to them. Like the Turks, they are proud, ignorant, sensual, and depraved, and their treatment of women exactly accords with this character. They regard the female s.e.x but as material instruments of man's gratification; and this idea is become so generally received, that the sole education of a girl is such as will render her acceptable to some gross sensualist. Intellect and sentiment are not the possessions which will recommend her: _to be attractive, she must be fat_. A girl of such bulk as to be a good load for a camel is considered a perfect beauty, and, accordingly, the mother does not train her daughter in seductive arts, but feeds her into a seductive appearance, as pigeons are fed in some parts of Italy. She is made to swallow every day a certain number of b.a.l.l.s of paste saturated with oil, and the rod overcomes any reluctance she may have to the diet.

The Moors are extremely jealous of their enormous wives. Some have been known to kill their women before proceeding on a journey; others have forbidden them to name an animal of the masculine gender. They are entirely shut up within the walls of the harem, where they pa.s.s their time perfuming and decorating their persons, to attract the favor of their lords.

The general marriage laws of Mohammedan countries prevail in the Barbary States. Four wives and as many concubines as he pleases are the limits within which a man is confined, but few men marry more than one woman.

An extensive system of prost.i.tution prevails in all the cities. The low drinking-shops are crowded with women. The public dancers, who all belong to the sisterhood, exist in large numbers, and are very much encouraged.

Their society is a favorite recreation with Moors of all cla.s.ses. A man entertaining a party of friends will send for a company of dancers to amuse them. There, amid the fumes of tobacco, and sometimes of liquor (for the precepts of the Koran are disregarded on such occasions), the women practice the most degrading obscenities, and the orgies become such as no pen can describe. These prost.i.tutes are of various cla.s.ses, from the low, vulgar wretches who exist in misery, filth, and disease, to the wealthy courtesans who live in luxury and splendor.

A late traveler was introduced by a friend to a "Moorish lady." He was ushered into a s.p.a.cious apartment hung with rich-colored silks. Reclining on a splendid divan, with every appliance of wealth around her, was a woman of extreme loveliness. Elegant in her manners and address, she seemed a model of feminine grace, nor did the visitor discover until after he had left her that he had been conversing with a Moorish prost.i.tute.

SIBERIA.

The state of manners to which the population of these snowy tracts has arrived is very low. They are rude, ignorant, and gross. The condition and character of the female s.e.x correspond with that of the male. In the perpetual migration of tribes they bear the heaviest burdens, and in their habitations the man regards his wife as a mere domestic slave, to whom it is unnecessary even to speak a kind word. There are some exceptions to this rule, especially toward the centre of the district, removed from Russia on the one hand and the sea on the other, where more equality of the s.e.xes is observable.

A wife is generally obtained by purchase, and if a man is not rich enough to pay the sum demanded by the parents of a girl for the privilege of marrying her, he hires himself to them for a term ranging from three to ten years, according to an agreement, and his services in that time are considered equivalent to the value of his bride. These contracts are faithfully observed, the woman is invariably given up at the specified time, and the man released from his servile condition, and admitted to all the dignities and rights of a son-in-law. Where the bridegroom is in a condition to pay for his bride, the preliminary negotiations are managed by his friends and her parents; they are very quietly arranged, but the spirit of bargaining is strong on both sides. The stipulated amount must be paid before the marriage is completed; and if a man steals away his bride before he has paid the full cost, the father watches an opportunity and recaptures her, retaining her in pledge until the balance is forthcoming.

The marriage ceremonies vary in different tribes. With some there is no feast or form of any kind; with others every marriage must take place in a newly-built hut, where no impure things can have been. The most detailed account of marriage ceremonies we can find is among the Tschuwa.s.ses. They offer a sacrifice of bread and honey to the sun on the betrothal, that he may look down with favor on the union. When the wedding-day arrives, the bride hides herself behind a screen while the guests are a.s.sembling. When the party is complete, she walks three times round the room, followed by a train of virgins bearing bread and honey. Then the bridegroom enters, removes her veil, kisses her, and they exchange rings. She is now saluted as the "betrothed girl," and is again led behind the screen, whence she emerges wearing a matron's cap. The concluding rite is for her to pull off her new husband's boots, thus promising obedience to him. In this tribe the husband can divorce his wife by merely taking her cap from her head.

Polygamy is practiced by many, though some prefer to take one wife for another as often as inclination prompts them, rather than take charge of several at the same time.

Jealousy is little known among any of the races of Siberia. Modesty is not a female characteristic, nor is chast.i.ty very highly prized. If a wife commit adultery, the husband usually exacts a fine from the paramour for invading his rights "without permission." Their barbarous manners would not induce us to expect any refined modesty. A traveler was introduced to the family of a rich man, the head of a tribe, and upon entering his low-roofed but s.p.a.cious habitation, found himself in company with five or six women, wives and daughters, all entirely naked, who appeared excessively diverted at being discovered in such a state. The dancing women are as lewd as can possibly be conceived; indeed, obscene postures are the princ.i.p.al features of their entertainments.

A licentious intercourse between unmarried persons is almost universal.

With some, religious dissensions are extremely bitter; but profligacy is more powerful, and a woman who would rigidly refuse to eat or drink with a man of some other creed, will prost.i.tute herself to him from sheer l.u.s.t.

Abandoned women reside in all the towns in large numbers, and are scarcely reprobated by other cla.s.ses. The education of a Siberian girl appears to be simply telling her that marriage is her destiny, and that her husband will require her to be faithful. With this view she forms acquaintances, is seduced by one and yields to another, until her profligacy becomes so notorious that no one will purchase her as a wife, and she follows, as a means of living, the habits she had resorted to for the indulgence of her vicious appet.i.te. It is said that many prost.i.tutes become so from this cause.

ESQUIMAUX.

The Esquimaux require but a very short notice. As a race, they are dirty, poor, and immoral. Dishonesty is a prominent characteristic, especially manifested toward any strangers coming within their reach. The lamented Kane, in his "Arctic Explorations," mentions the trouble to which he was exposed in guarding his stores from their pilfering propensities; but, after he had administered one or two lessons of chastis.e.m.e.nt, they abandoned this habit, and became of great a.s.sistance to him. He says, "There is a frankness and cordiality in their way of receiving their guests, whatever may be the infirmities of their notions of honesty;"[373]

and when he parted from them on his perilous journey south, he remarks, "When trouble came to us and them, and we bent ourselves to their habits; when we looked to them to procure us fresh meat, and they found at our brig shelter during their wild bear-hunts, never were friends more true.

Although numberless articles of inestimable value to them have been scattered upon the ice unwatched, they have not stolen a nail."[374]

The Esquimaux women are not absolute slaves; their duties are almost entirely domestic, and during the winter especially their life is one of ease and pleasure, so far as their notions can comprehend such advantages.

Crowded inside a low hut, two or three families together, they spend their time in eating and sleeping alternately, both s.e.xes being perfectly naked, except a small ap.r.o.n worn by the women as a badge of their s.e.x. This nudity arises from the excessive heat of their cabins, which are rendered impervious to the cold outside. Dr. Kane mentions one occasion on which he was a visitor when the thermometer outside stood at 60 below zero, and inside the temperature mounted to 90, and says, "Bursting into a profuse perspiration, I stripped like the rest, and thus, an honored guest, and in the place of honor, I fell asleep."[375]

Respecting the morality of the men or the virtue of the women little is known. Parry says that husbands frequently offer their wives to strangers for a very small sum, and also that it is not uncommon for a change of wives to be made for a short time. He adds that in no country is prost.i.tution carried to a greater extent, the departure of the men on an expedition being a signal to their wives to abandon all restraint. l.u.s.t rules paramount, and the children are taught to watch outside the hut, lest the husband should return unexpectedly, and find his habitation occupied by a stranger. Their marriage contract is a mere social arrangement, easily dissolved, but this is rarely done, the general custom being for a man to chastise his wife when she displeases him. The usual form of matrimonial discipline consists in forcing her to lead the reindeer while he rides at ease in the sledge. Their laws permit any man to have two wives, and a regal perquisite of the great chief was the privilege of having as many as he could support.[376] These brides were not uncommonly carried off from their parents by force, the ceremonial rite following at the convenience of the parties. Such attempts are sometimes resisted. An aspirant for the favors of the daughter of a chief succeeded in conveying her to his sledge, but the father pursued with such alacrity that the adventurous lover had to abandon the fair one, and made his escape with some difficulty, leaving the equipage as spoils to the victor.[377]

Dr. Kane is of opinion that the services of the Lutheran and Moravian missionaries have produced a beneficial influence on the morals of the people. What may be called their normal religious notions extended only to the recognition of supernatural agencies, and to certain usages by which these could be conciliated. Murder, incest, burial of the living, and infanticide, were not considered crimes, and these have aided exposure and disease (the small-pox has made fearful ravages among them) to thin their numbers, and impress them with the idea that they are so rapidly dying out as to be able to mark their progress toward extinction within one generation.[378] This is more applicable to the northern tribes, removed from the effects of civilization, among whom murder and infanticide still exist, though not to so great an extent as formerly, while in the southern lat.i.tudes, where it was formerly unsafe for vessels to touch upon the coast, hospitality is now the universal characteristic; and truth, self-reliance, and manly honest bearing have been inculcated with considerable success, though not enough to render their notions of property accordant with those of civilized nations.[379]

ICELAND.

This country is inhabited by a serious, humble, and quiet people. Isolated from the rest of the world, they remain to this day in an almost primitive condition, and nine centuries have produced little change in their manners, language, or costume. The condition of the s.e.xes is somewhat equal; the men divide their labors with the women, but do not oppress them. Both are alike filthy and coa.r.s.e in their habits. Their hospitality a.s.sumes some singular forms. Women salute a stranger with a cordial embrace, but their dirty habits generally render him anxious to escape from their arms as quickly as possible. A missionary was upon one occasion especially scandalized. He was visiting at the house of a rich man, who treated him liberally, and upon retiring to his room at night was followed by his host's eldest daughter, who insisted upon helping him to undress and prepare for bed, declaring that it was the invariable custom of the country.

Few absolute laws regulate the intercourse of the s.e.xes. Christianity has abolished polygamy, and public opinion holds a strong check upon illicit intercourse. With the exception of their sea-ports, the people may be called a moral race. The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children is about one in every seven.

Lord Kames relates an anecdote which would stamp the Icelanders of one hundred and fifty years ago as any thing but moral. He says that in 1707 a contagious distemper had cut off nearly all the people, and, in order to repopulate the country, the King of Denmark issued a proclamation authorizing every single woman to bear six illegitimate children without losing her reputation. Report says the girls were so zealous in this patriotic work that it soon became necessary to abrogate the law.