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STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, VOLUME I

The Evolution of Modesty

The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity

Auto-Erotism

by

HAVELOCK ELLIS

1927

GENERAL PREFACE.

The origin of these _Studies_ dates from many years back. As a youth I was

faced, as others are, by the problem of sex. Living partly in an

Australian city where the ways of life were plainly seen, partly in the

solitude of the bush, I was free both to contemplate and to meditate many

things. A resolve slowly grew up within me: one main part of my life-work

should be to make clear the problems of sex.

That was more than twenty years ago. Since then I can honestly say that in

all that I have done that resolve has never been very far from my

thoughts. I have always been slowly working up to this central problem;

and in a book published some three years ago--_Man and Woman: a Study of

Human Secondary Sexual Characters_--I put forward what was, in my own

eyes, an introduction to the study of the primary questions of sexual

psychology.

Now that I have at length reached the time for beginning to publish my

results, these results scarcely seem to me large. As a youth, I had hoped

to settle problems for those who came after; now I am quietly content if I

do little more than state them. For even that, I now think, is much; it is

at least the half of knowledge. In this particular field the evil of

ignorance is magnified by our efforts to suppress that which never can be

suppressed, though in the effort of suppression it may become perverted. I

have at least tried to find out what are the facts, among normal people as

well as among abnormal people; for, while it seems to me that the

physician's training is necessary in order to ascertain the facts, the

physician for the most part only obtains the abnormal facts, which alone

bring little light. I have tried to get at the facts, and, having got at

the facts, to look them simply and squarely in the face. If I cannot

perhaps turn the lock myself, I bring the key which can alone in the end

rightly open the door: the key of sincerity. That is my one panacea:

sincerity.

I know that many of my friends, people on whose side I, too, am to be

found, retort with another word: reticence. It is a mistake, they say, to

try to uncover these things; leave the sexual instincts alone, to grow up

and develop in the shy solitude they love, and they will be sure to grow

up and develop wholesomely. But, as a matter of fact, that is precisely

what we can not and will not ever allow them to do. There are very few

middle-aged men and women who can clearly recall the facts of their lives

and tell you in all honesty that their sexual instincts have developed

easily and wholesomely throughout. And it should not be difficult to see

why this is so. Let my friends try to transfer their feelings and theories

from the reproductive region to, let us say, the nutritive region, the

only other which can be compared to it for importance. Suppose that eating

and drinking was never spoken of openly, save in veiled or poetic

language, and that no one ever ate food publicly, because it was

considered immoral and immodest to reveal the mysteries of this natural

function. We know what would occur. A considerable proportion of the

community, more especially the more youthful members, possessed by an

instinctive and legitimate curiosity, would concentrate their thoughts on

the subject. They would have so many problems to puzzle over: How often

ought I to eat? What ought I to eat? Is it wrong to eat fruit, which I

like? Ought I to eat grass, which I don't like? Instinct notwithstanding,

we may be quite sure that only a small minority would succeed in eating

reasonably and wholesomely. The sexual secrecy of life is even more

disastrous than such a nutritive secrecy would be; partly because we

expend such a wealth of moral energy in directing or misdirecting it,

partly because the sexual impulse normally develops at the same time as

the intellectual impulse, not in the early years of life, when wholesome

instinctive habits might be formed. And there is always some ignorant and

foolish friend who is prepared still further to muddle things: Eat a meal

every other day! Eat twelve meals a day! Never eat fruit! Always eat

grass! The advice emphatically given in sexual matters is usually not less

absurd than this. When, however, the matter is fully open, the problems of

food are not indeed wholly solved, but everyone is enabled by the

experience of his fellows to reach some sort of situation suited to his

own case. And when the rigid secrecy is once swept away a sane and natural

reticence becomes for the first time possible.

This secrecy has not always been maintained. When the Catholic Church was

at the summit of its power and influence it fully realized the magnitude

of sexual problems and took an active and inquiring interest in all the

details of normal and abnormal sexuality. Even to the present time there

are certain phenomena of the sexual life which have scarcely been

accurately described except in ancient theological treatises. As the type

of such treatises I will mention the great tome of Sanchez, _De

Matrimonio_. Here you will find the whole sexual life of men and women

analyzed in its relationships to sin. Everything is set forth, as clearly

and as concisely as it can be--without morbid prudery on the one hand, or

morbid sentimentality on the other--in the coldest scientific language;

the right course of action is pointed out for all the cases that may

occur, and we are told what is lawful, what a venial sin, what a mortal

sin. Now I do not consider that sexual matters concern the theologian

alone, and I deny altogether that he is competent to deal with them. In

his hands, also, undoubtedly, they sometimes become prurient, as they can

scarcely fail to become on the non-natural and unwholesome basis of

asceticism, and as they with difficulty become in the open-air light of

science. But we are bound to recognize the thoroughness with which the

Catholic theologians dealt with these matters, and, from their own point

of view, indeed, the entire reasonableness; we are bound to recognize the

admirable spirit in which, successfully or not, they sought to approach

them. We need to-day the same spirit and temper applied from a different

standpoint. These things concern everyone; the study of these things

concerns the physiologist, the psychologist, the moralist. We want to get

into possession of the actual facts, and from the investigation of the

facts we want to ascertain what is normal and what is abnormal, from the

point of view of physiology and of psychology. We want to know what is

naturally lawful under the various sexual chances that may befall man, not

as the born child of sin, but as a naturally social animal. What is a

venial sin against nature, what a mortal sin against nature? The answers

are less easy to reach than the theologians' answers generally were, but

we can at least put ourselves in the right attitude; we may succeed in

asking that question which is sometimes even more than the half of

knowledge.

It is perhaps a mistake to show so plainly at the outset that I approach

what may seem only a psychological question not without moral fervour. But

I do not wish any mistake to be made. I regard sex as the central problem

of life. And now that the problem of religion has practically been

settled, and that the problem of labor has at least been placed on a

practical foundation, the question of sex--with the racial questions that

rest on it--stands before the coming generations as the chief problem for

solution. Sex lies at the root of life, and we can never learn to

reverence life until we know how to understand sex.--So, at least, it

seems to me.

Having said so much, I will try to present such results as I have to

record in that cold and dry light through which alone the goal of

knowledge may truly be seen.

HAVELOCK ELLIS.

July, 1897.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

The first edition of this volume was published in 1899, following "Sexual

Inversion," which now forms Volume II. The second edition, issued by the

present publishers and substantially identical with the first edition,

appeared in the following year. Ten years have elapsed since then and this

new edition will be found to reflect the course of that long interval. Not

only is the volume greatly enlarged, but nearly every page has been partly

rewritten. This is mainly due to three causes: Much new literature

required to be taken into account; my own knowledge of the historical and

ethnographic aspects of the sexual impulse has increased; many fresh

illustrative cases of a valuable and instructive character have

accumulated in my hands. It is to these three sources of improvement that

the book owes its greatly revised and enlarged condition, and not to the

need for modifying any of its essential conclusions. These, far from

undergoing any change, have by the new material been greatly strengthened.

It may be added that the General Preface to the whole work, which was

originally published in 1898 at the beginning of "Sexual Inversion," now

finds its proper place at the outset of the present volume.

HAVELOCK ELLIS.

Carbis Bay,

Cornwall, Eng.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The present volume contains three studies which seem to me to be necessary

_prolegomena_ to that analysis of the sexual instinct which must form the

chief part of an investigation into the psychology of sex. The first

sketches the main outlines of a complex emotional state which is of

fundamental importance in sexual psychology; the second, by bringing

together evidence from widely different regions, suggests a tentative

explanation of facts that are still imperfectly known; the third attempts

to show that even in fields where we assume our knowledge to be adequate a

broader view of the phenomena teaches us to suspend judgment and to adopt

a more cautious attitude. So far as they go, these studies are complete in

themselves; their special use, as an introduction to a more comprehensive

analysis of sexual phenomena, is that they bring before us, under varying

aspects, a characteristic which, though often ignored, is of the first

importance in obtaining a clear understanding of the facts: the tendency

of the sexual impulse to appear in a spontaneous and to some extent

periodic manner, affecting women differently from men. This is a tendency

which, later, I hope to make still more apparent, for it has practical and

social, as well as psychological, implications. Here--and more especially

in the study of those spontaneous solitary manifestations which I call

auto-erotic--I have attempted to clear the ground, and to indicate the

main lines along which the progress of our knowledge in these fields may

best be attained.

It may surprise many medical readers that in the third and longest study I

have said little, save incidentally, either of treatment or prevention.

The omission of such considerations at this stage is intentional. It may

safely be said that in no other field of human activity is so vast an

amount of strenuous didactic morality founded on so slender a basis of

facts. In most other departments of life we at least make a pretence of

learning before we presume to teach; in the field of sex we content

ourselves with the smallest and vaguest minimum of information, often

ostentatiously second-hand, usually unreliable. I wish to emphasize the

fact that before we can safely talk either of curing or preventing these

manifestations we must know a great deal more than we know at present

regarding their distribution, etiology, and symptomatology; and we must

exercise the same coolness and caution as--if our work is to be

fruitful--we require in any other field of serious study. We must approach

these facts as physicians, it is true, but also as psychologists,

primarily concerned to find out the workings of such manifestations in

fairly healthy and normal people. If we found a divorce-court judge

writing a treatise on marriage we should smile. But it is equally absurd

for the physician, so long as his knowledge is confined to disease, to

write regarding sex at large; valuable as the facts he brings forward may

be, he can never be in a position to generalize concerning them. And to

me, at all events, it seems that we have had more than enough pictures of

gross sexual perversity, whether furnished by the asylum or the brothel.

They are only really instructive when they are seen in their proper

perspective as the rare and ultimate extremes of a chain of phenomena

which we may more profitably study nearer home.

Yet, although we are, on every hand, surrounded by the normal

manifestations of sex, conscious or unconscious, these manifestations are

extremely difficult to observe, and, in those cases in which we are best

able to observe them, it frequently happens that we are unable to make any

use of our knowledge. Moreover, even when we have obtained our data, the

difficulties--at all events, for an English investigator--are by no means

overcome. He may take for granted that any serious and precise study of

the sexual instinct will not meet with general approval; his work will be

misunderstood; his motives will be called in question; among those for

whom he is chiefly working he will find indifference. Indeed, the pioneer

in this field may well count himself happy if he meets with nothing worse

than indifference. Hence it is that the present volume will not be

published in England, but that, availing myself of the generous sympathy

with which my work has been received in America, I have sought the wider

medical and scientific audience of the United States. In matters of faith,

"liberty of prophesying" was centuries since eloquently vindicated for

Englishmen; the liberty of investigating facts is still called in

question, under one pretence or another, and to seek out the most vital

facts of life is still in England a perilous task.

I desire most heartily to thank the numerous friends and correspondents,

some living in remote parts of the world, who have freely assisted me in

my work with valuable information and personal histories. To Mr. F.H.

Perry-Coste I owe an appendix which is by far the most elaborate attempt

yet made to find evidence of periodicity in the spontaneous sexual

manifestations of sleep; my debts to various medical and other

correspondents are duly stated in the text. To many women friends and

correspondents I may here express my gratitude for the manner in which

they have furnished me with intimate personal records, and for the

cross-examination to which they have allowed me to subject them. I may

already say here, what I shall have occasion to say more emphatically in

subsequent volumes, that without the assistance I have received from women

of fine intelligence and high character my work would be impossible. I

regret that I cannot make my thanks more specific.

HAVELOCK ELLIS.

CONTENTS.

THE EVOLUTION OF MODESTY.

I.

The Definition of Modesty--The Significance of Modesty--Difficulties in

the Way of Its Analysis--The Varying Phenomena of Modesty Among Different

Peoples and in Different Ages.

II.

Modesty an Agglomeration of Fears--Children in Relation to

Modesty--Modesty in Animals--The Attitude of the Medicean Venus--The

Sexual Factor of Modesty Based on Sexual periodicity and on the Primitive

Phenomena of Courtship--The Necessity of Seclusion in Primitive Sexual

Intercourse--The Meaning of Coquetry--The Sexual Charm of Modesty--Modesty

as an Expression of Feminine Erotic Impulse--The Fear of Causing Disgust

as a Factor of Modesty--The Modesty of Savages in Regard to Eating in the

Presence of Others--The Sacro-Pubic Region as a Focus of Disgust--The Idea

of Ceremonial Uncleanliness--The Custom of Veiling the Face--Ornaments and

Clothing--Modesty Becomes Concentrated in the Garment--The Economic Factor

in Modesty--The Contribution of Civilization to Modesty--The Elaboration

of Social Ritual.

III.

The Blush the Sanction of Modesty--The Phenomena of Blushing--Influences

Which Modify the Aptitude to Blush--Darkness, Concealment of the Face,

Etc.

IV.

Summary of the Factors of Modesty--The Future of Modesty--Modesty an

Essential Element of Love.

THE PHENOMENA OF SEXUAL PERIODICITY.

I.

The Various Physiological and Psychological Rhythms--Menstruation--The

Alleged Influence of the Moon--Frequent Suppression of Menstruation among

Primitive Races--Mittelschmerz--Possible Tendency to a Future

Intermenstrual Cycle--Menstruation among Animals--Menstruating Monkeys and

Apes--What is Menstruation--Its Primary Cause Still Obscure--The Relation

of Menstruation to Ovulation--The Occasional Absence of Menstruation in

Health--The Relation of Menstruation to "Heat"--The Prohibition of

Intercourse during Menstruation--The Predominance of Sexual Excitement at

and around the Menstrual Period--Its Absence during the Period Frequently

Apparent only.

II.

The Question of a Monthly Sexual Cycle in Men--The Earliest Suggestions of

a General Physiological Cycle in Men--Periodicity in Disease--Insanity,

Heart Disease, etc.--The Alleged Twenty-three Days' Cycle--The

Physiological Periodicity of Seminal Emissions during Sleep--Original

Observations--Fortnightly and Weekly Rhythms.

III.

The Annual Sexual Rhythm--In Animals--In Man--Tendency of the Sexual

Impulse to become Heightened in Spring and Autumn--The Prevalence of

Seasonal Erotic Festivals--The Feast of Fools--The Easter and Midsummer

Bonfires--The Seasonal Variations in Birthrate--The Causes of those

Variations--The Typical Conception-rate Curve for Europe--The Seasonal

Periodicity of Seminal Emissions During Sleep--Original

Observations--Spring and Autumn the Chief Periods of Involuntary Sexual

Excitement--The Seasonal Periodicity of Rapes--Of Outbreaks among

Prisoners--The Seasonal Curves of Insanity and Suicide--The Growth of

Children According to Season--The Annual Curve of Bread-consumption in

Prisons--Seasonal Periodicity of Scarlet Fever--The Underlying Causes of

these Seasonal Phenomena.

AUTO-EROTISM: A STUDY OF THE SPONTANEOUS MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SEXUAL

IMPULSE.

I.

Definition of Auto-erotism--Masturbation only Covers a Small Portion of

the Auto-erotic Field--The Importance of this Study, especially

To-day--Auto-erotic Phenomena in Animals--Among Savage and Barbaric

Races--The Japanese _rin-no-tama_ and other Special Instruments for

Obtaining Auto-erotic Gratification--Abuse of the Ordinary Implements and

Objects of Daily Life--The Frequency of Hair-pin in the Bladder--The

Influence of Horse-exercise and Railway Traveling--The Sewing-machine and

the Bicycle--Spontaneous Passive Sexual Excitement--_Delectatio

Morosa_--Day-dreaming--_Pollutio_--Sexual Excitement During Sleep--Erotic

Dreams--The Analogy of Nocturnal Enuresis--Differences in the Erotic

Dreams of Men and Women--The Auto-erotic Phenomena of Sleep in the

Hysterical--Their Frequently Painful Character.

II.

Hysteria and the Question of Its Relation to the Sexual Emotions--The

Early Greek Theories of its Nature and Causation--The Gradual Rise of

Modern Views--Charcot--The Revolt Against Charcot's Too Absolute

Conclusions--Fallacies Involved--Charcot's Attitude the Outcome of his

Personal Temperament--Breuer and Freud--Their Views Supplement and

Complete Charcot's--At the Same Time they Furnish a Justification for the

Earlier Doctrine of Hysteria--But They Must Not be Regarded as Final--The

Diffused Hysteroid Condition in Normal Persons--The Physiological Basis of

Hysteria--True Pathological Hysteria is Linked on to almost Normal States,

especially to Sex-hunger.

III.

The Prevalence of Masturbation--Its Occurrence in Infancy and

Childhood--Is it More Frequent in Males or Females?--After Adolescence

Apparently more Frequent in Women--Reasons for the Sexual Distribution of

Masturbation--The Alleged Evils of Masturbation--Historical Sketch of the

Views Held on This Point--The Symptoms and Results of Masturbation--Its

Alleged Influence in Causing Eye Disorders--Its Relation to Insanity and

Nervous Disorders--The Evil Effects of Masturbation Usually Occur on the

Basis of a Congenitally Morbid Nervous System--Neurasthenia Probably the

Commonest Accompaniment of Excessive Masturbation--Precocious Masturbation

Tends to Produce Aversion to Coitus--Psychic Results of Habitual

Masturbation--Masturbation in Men of Genius--Masturbation as a Nervous

Sedative--Typical Cases--The Greek Attitude toward Masturbation--Attitude

of the Catholic Theologians--The Mohammedan Attitude--The Modern

Scientific Attitude--In What Sense is Masturbation Normal?--The Immense

Part in Life Played by Transmuted Auto-erotic Phenomena.

APPENDIX A.

The Influence of Menstruation on the Position of Women.

APPENDIX B.

Sexual Periodicity in Men.

APPENDIX C.

The Auto-erotic Factor in Religion.

INDEX.

DIAGRAMS.

THE EVOLUTION OF MODESTY.

I.

The Definition of Modesty--The Significance of Modesty--Difficulties in

the Way of Its Analysis--The Varying Phenomena of Modesty Among Different

Peoples and in Different Ages.

Modesty, which may be provisionally defined as an almost instinctive fear

prompting to concealment and usually centering around the sexual

processes, while common to both sexes is more peculiarly feminine, so that

it may almost be regarded as the chief secondary sexual character of women

on the psychical side. The woman who is lacking in this kind of fear is

lacking, also, in sexual attractiveness to the normal and average man. The

apparent exceptions seem to prove the rule, for it will generally be found

that the women who are, not immodest (for immodesty is more closely

related to modesty than mere negative absence of the sense of modesty),

but without that fear which implies the presence of a complex emotional

feminine organization to defend, only make a strong sexual appeal to men

who are themselves lacking in the complementary masculine qualities. As a

psychical secondary sexual character of the first rank, it is necessary,

before any psychology of sex can be arranged in order, to obtain a clear

view of modesty.

The immense importance of feminine modesty in creating masculine

passion must be fairly obvious. I may, however, quote the

observations of two writers who have shown evidence of insight

and knowledge regarding this matter.

Casanova describes how, when at Berne, he went to the baths, and

was, according to custom, attended by a young girl, whom he

selected from a group of bath attendants. She undressed him,

proceeded to undress herself, and then entered the bath with him,

and rubbed him thoroughly all over, the operation being performed

in the most serious manner and without a word being spoken. When

all was over, however, he perceived that the girl had expected

him to make advances, and he proceeds to describe and discuss his

own feelings of indifference under such circumstances. "Though

without gazing on the girl's figure, I had seen enough to

recognize that she had all that a man can desire to find in a

woman: a beautiful face, lively and well-formed eyes, a beautiful

mouth, with good teeth, a healthy complexion, well-developed

breasts, and everything in harmony. It is true that I had felt

that her hands could have been smoother, but I could only

attribute this to hard work; moreover, my Swiss girl was only

eighteen, and yet I remained entirely cold. What was the cause of

this? That was the question that I asked myself."

"It is clear," wrote Stendhal, "that three parts of modesty are

taught. This is, perhaps, the only law born of civilization which

produces nothing but happiness. It has been observed that birds

of prey hide themselves to drink, because, being obliged to

plunge their heads in the water, they are at that moment

defenceless. After having considered what passes at Otaheite, I

can see no other natural foundation for modesty. Love is the

miracle of civilization. Among savage and very barbarous races we

find nothing but physical love of a gross character. It is

modesty that gives to love the aid of imagination, and in so

doing imparts life to it. Modesty is very early taught to little

girls by their mothers, and with extreme jealousy, one might say,

by _esprit de corps_. They are watching in advance over the

happiness of the future lover. To a timid and tender woman there

ought to be no greater torture than to allow herself in the

presence of a man something which she thinks she ought to blush

at. I am convinced that a proud woman would prefer a thousand

deaths. A slight liberty taken on the tender side by the man she

loves gives a woman a moment of keen pleasure, but if he has the

air of blaming her for it, or only of not enjoying it with

transport, an awful doubt must be left in her mind. For a woman

above the vulgar level there is, then, everything to gain by very

reserved manners. The play is not equal. She hazards against a

slight pleasure, or against the advantage of appearing a little

amiable, the danger of biting remorse, and a feeling of shame

which must render even the lover less dear. An evening passed

gaily and thoughtlessly, without thinking of what comes after, is

dearly paid at this price. The sight of a lover with whom one

fears that one has had this kind of wrong must become odious for

several days. Can one be surprised at the force of a habit, the

slightest infractions of which are punished with such atrocious

shame? As to the utility of modesty, it is the mother of love. As

to the mechanism of the feeling, nothing is simpler. The mind is

absorbed in feeling shame instead of being occupied with desire.

Desires are forbidden, and desires lead to actions. It is evident

that every tender and proud woman--and these two things, being

cause and effect, naturally go together--must contract habits of

coldness which the people whom she disconcerts call prudery. The

power of modesty is so great that a tender woman betrays herself

with her lover rather by deeds than by words. The evil of

modesty is that it constantly leads to falsehood." (Stendhal, _De

l'Amour_, Chapter XXIV.)

It thus happens that, as Adler remarks (_Die Mangelhafte

Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes_, p. 133), the sexual impulse in

women is fettered by an inhibition which has to be conquered. A

thin veil of reticence, shyness, and anxiety is constantly cast

anew over a woman's love, and her wooer, in every act of

courtship, has the enjoyment of conquering afresh an oft-won

woman.

An interesting testimony to the part played by modesty in

effecting the union of the sexes is furnished by the fact--to

which attention has often been called--that the special modesty

of women usually tends to diminish, though not to disappear, with

the complete gratification of the sexual impulses. This may be

noted among savage as well as among civilized women. The

comparatively evanescent character of modesty has led to the

argument (Venturi, _Degenerazioni Psico-sessuali_, pp. 92-93)

that modesty (_pudore_) is possessed by women alone, men

exhibiting, instead, a sense of decency which remains at about

the same level of persistency throughout life. Viazzi ("Pudore

nell 'uomo e nella donna," _Rivista Mensile di Psichiatria

Forense_, 1898), on the contrary, following Sergi, argues that

men are, throughout, more modest than women; but the points he

brings forward, though often just, scarcely justify his

conclusion. While the young virgin, however, is more modest and

shy than the young man of the same age, the experienced married

woman is usually less so than her husband, and in a woman who is

a mother the shy reticences of virginal modesty would be rightly

felt to be ridiculous. ("Les petites pudeurs n'existent pas pour

les mères," remarks Goncourt, _Journal des Goncourt_, vol. iii,

p. 5.) She has put off a sexual livery that has no longer any

important part to play in life, and would, indeed, be

inconvenient and harmful, just as a bird loses its sexual plumage

when the pairing season is over.

Madame Céline Renooz, in an elaborate study of the psychological

sexual differences between men and women (_Psychologie Comparée

de l'Homme et de la Femme_, 1898, pp. 85-87), also believes that

modesty is not really a feminine characteristic. "Modesty," she

argues, "is masculine shame attributed to women for two reasons:

first, because man believes that woman is subject to the same

laws as himself; secondly, because the course of human evolution

has reversed the psychology of the sexes, attributing to women

the psychological results of masculine sexuality. This is the

origin of the conventional lies which by a sort of social

suggestion have intimidated women. They have, in appearance at

least, accepted the rule of shame imposed on them by men, but

only custom inspires the modesty for which they are praised; it

is really an outrage to their sex. This reversal of psychological

laws has, however, only been accepted by women with a struggle.

Primitive woman, proud of her womanhood, for a long time

defended her nakedness which ancient art has always represented.

And in the actual life of the young girl to-day there is a moment

when, by a secret atavism, she feels the pride of her sex, the

intuition of her moral superiority, and cannot understand why she

must hide its cause. At this moment, wavering between the laws of

Nature and social conventions, she scarcely knows if nakedness

should or should not affright her. A sort of confused atavistic

memory recalls to her a period before clothing was known, and

reveals to her as a paradisaical ideal the customs of that human

epoch."

In support of this view the authoress proceeds to point out that

the _décolleté_ constantly reappears in feminine clothing, never

in male; that missionaries experience great difficulty in

persuading women to cover themselves; that, while women accept

with facility an examination by male doctors, men cannot force

themselves to accept examination by a woman doctor, etc. (These

and similar points had already been independently brought forward

by Sergi, _Archivio di Psichiatria_, vol. xiii, 1892.)

It cannot be said that Madame Renooz's arguments will all bear

examination, if only on the ground that nakedness by no means

involves absence of modesty, but the point of view which she

expresses is one which usually fails to gain recognition, though

it probably contains an important element of truth. It is quite

true, as Stendhal said, that modesty is very largely taught; from

the earliest years, a girl child is trained to show a modesty

which she quickly begins really to feel. This fact cannot fail to

strike any one who reads the histories of pseudo-hermaphroditic

persons, really males, who have from infancy been brought up in

the belief that they are girls, and who show, and feel, all the

shrinking reticence and blushing modesty of their supposed sex.

But when the error is discovered, and they are restored to their

proper sex, this is quickly changed, and they exhibit all the

boldness of masculinity. (See e.g., Neugebauer, "Beobachtungen

aus dem Gebiete des Scheinzwittertumes," _Jahrbuch für Sexuelle

Zwischenstufen_, Jahrgang iv, 1902, esp. p. 92.) At the same time

this is only one thread in the tangled skein with which we are

here concerned. The mass of facts which meets us when we turn to

the study of modesty in women cannot be dismissed as a group of

artificially-imposed customs. They gain rather than lose in

importance if we have to realize that the organic sexual demands

of women, calling for coyness in courtship, lead to the temporary

suppression of another feminine instinct of opposite, though

doubtless allied, nature.

But these somewhat conflicting, though not really contradictory,

statements serve to bring out the fact that a woman's modesty is

often an incalculable element. The woman who, under some

circumstances and at some times, is extreme in her reticences,

under other circumstances or at other times, may be extreme in

her abandonment. Not that her modesty is an artificial garment,

which she throws off or on at will. It is organic, but like the

snail's shell, it sometimes forms an impenetrable covering, and

sometimes glides off almost altogether. A man's modesty is more

rigid, with little tendency to deviate toward either extreme.

Thus it is, that, when uninstructed, a man is apt to be impatient

with a woman's reticences, and yet shocked at her abandonments.

The significance of our inquiry becomes greater when we reflect that to

the reticences of sexual modesty, in their progression, expansion, and

complication, we largely owe, not only the refinement and development of

the sexual emotions,--"_la pudeur_" as Guyau remarked, "_a civilisé

l'amour_"--but the subtle and pervading part which the sexual instinct has

played in the evolution of all human culture.

"It is certain that very much of what is best in religion, art,

and life," remark Stanley Hall and Allin, "owes its charm to the

progressively-widening irradiation of sexual feeling. Perhaps the

reluctance of the female first long-circuited the exquisite

sensations connected with sexual organs and acts to the antics of

animal and human courtship, while restraint had the physiological

function of developing the colors, plumes, excessive activity,

and exuberant life of the pairing season. To keep certain parts

of the body covered, irradiated the sense of beauty to eyes,

hair, face, complexion, dress, form, etc., while many savage

dances, costumes and postures are irradiations of the sexual act.

Thus reticence, concealment, and restraint are among the prime

conditions of religion and human culture." (Stanley Hall and

Allin, "The Psychology of Tickling," _American Journal of

Psychology_, 1897, p. 31.)

Groos attributes the deepening of the conjugal relation among

birds to the circumstance that the male seeks to overcome the

reticence of the female by the display of his charms and

abilities. "And in the human world," he continues, "it is the

same; without the modest reserve of the woman that must, in most

cases, be overcome by lovable qualities, the sexual relationship

would with difficulty find a singer who would extol in love the

highest movements of the human soul." (Groos, _Spiele der

Menschen_, p. 341.)

I have not, however, been, able to find that the subject of modesty has

been treated in any comprehensive way by psychologists. Though valuable

facts and suggestions bearing on the sexual emotions, on disgust, the

origins of tatooing, on ornament and clothing, have been, brought forward

by physiologists, psychologists, and ethnographists, few or no attempts

appear to have been made to reach a general synthetic statement of these

facts and suggestions. It is true that a great many unreliable, slight, or

fragmentary efforts have been made to ascertain the constitution or basis

of this emotion.[1] Many psychologists have regarded modesty simply as the

result of clothing. This view is overturned by the well-ascertained fact

that many races which go absolutely naked possess a highly-developed sense

of modesty. These writers have not realized that physiological modesty is

earlier in appearance, and more fundamental, than anatomical modesty. A

partial contribution to the analysis of modesty has been made by Professor

James, who, with his usual insight and lucidity, has set forth certain of

its characteristics, especially the element due to "the application to

ourselves of judgments primarily passed upon our mates." Guyau, in a very

brief discussion of modesty, realized its great significance and touched

on most of its chief elements.[2] Westermarck, again, followed by Grosse,

has very ably and convincingly set forth certain factors in the origin of

ornament and clothing, a subject which many writers imagine to cover the

whole field of modesty. More recently Ribot, in his work on the emotions,

has vaguely outlined most of the factors of modesty, but has not developed

a coherent view of their origins and relationships.

Since the present _Study_ first appeared, Hohenemser, who

considers that my analysis of modesty is unsatisfactory, has made

a notable attempt to define the psychological mechanism of shame.

("Versuch einer Analyse der Scham," _Archiv für die Gesamte

Psychologie_, Bd. II, Heft 2-3, 1903.) He regards shame as a

general psycho-physical phenomenon, "a definite tension of the

whole soul," with an emotion superadded. "The state of shame

consists in a certain psychic lameness or inhibition," sometimes

accompanied by physical phenomena of paralysis, such as sinking

of the head and inability to meet the eye. It is a special case

of Lipps's psychic stasis or damming up (_psychische Stauung_),

always produced when the psychic activities are at the same time

drawn in two or more different directions. In shame there is

always something present in consciousness which conflicts with

the rest of the personality, and cannot be brought into harmony

with it, which cannot be brought, that is, into moral (not

logical) relationship with it. A young man in love with a girl is

ashamed when told that he is in love, because his reverence for

one whom he regards as a higher being cannot be brought into

relationship with his own lower personality. A child in the same

way feels shame in approaching a big, grown-up person, who seems

a higher sort of being. Sometimes, likewise, we feel shame in

approaching a stranger, for a new person tends to seem higher and

more interesting than ourselves. It is not so in approaching a

new natural phenomenon, because we do not compare it with

ourselves. Another kind of shame is seen when this mental contest

is lower than our personality, and on this account in conflict

with it, as when we are ashamed of sexual thoughts. Sexual ideas

tend to evoke shame, Hohenemser remarks, because they so easily

tend to pass into sexual feelings; when they do not so pass (as

in scientific discussions) they do not evoke shame.

It will be seen that this discussion of modesty is highly

generalized and abstracted; it deals simply with the formal

mechanism of the process. Hohenemser admits that fear is a form

of psychic stasis, and I have sought to show that modesty is a

complexus of fears. We may very well accept the conception of

psychic stasis at the outset. The analysis of modesty has still

to be carried very much further.

The discussion of modesty is complicated by the difficulty, and even

impossibility, of excluding closely-allied emotions--shame, shyness,

bashfulness, timidity, etc.--all of which, indeed, however defined, adjoin

or overlap modesty.[3] It is not, however, impossible to isolate the main

body of the emotion of modesty, on account of its special connection, on

the whole, with the consciousness of sex. I here attempt, however

imperfectly, to sketch out a fairly-complete analysis of its constitution

and to trace its development.

In entering upon this investigation a few facts with regard to

the various manifestations of modesty may be helpful to us. I

have selected these from scattered original sources, and have

sought to bring out the variety and complexity of the problems

with which we are here concerned.

The New Georgians of the Solomon Islands, so low a race that they

are ignorant both of pottery and weaving, and wear only a loin

cloth, "have the same ideas of what is decent with regard to

certain acts and exposures that we ourselves have;" so that it is

difficult to observe whether they practice circumcision.

(Somerville, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1897, p.

394.)

In the New Hebrides "the closest secrecy is adopted with regard

to the penis, not at all from a sense of decency, but to avoid

Narak, the _sight_ even of that of another man being considered

most dangerous. The natives of this savage island, accordingly,

wrap the penis around with many yards of calico, and other like

materials, winding and folding them until a preposterous bundle

18 inches, or 2 feet long, and 2 inches or more in diameter is

formed, which is then supported upward by means of a belt, in the

extremity decorated with flowering grasses, etc. The testicles

are left naked." There is no other body covering. (Somerville,

_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1894, p. 368.)

In the Pelew Islands, says Kubary, as quoted by Bastian, it is

said that when the God Irakaderugel and his wife were creating

man and woman (he forming man and she forming woman), and were at

work on the sexual organs, the god wished to see his consort's

handiwork. She, however, was cross, and persisted in concealing

what she had made. Ever since then women wear an apron of

pandanus-leaves and men go naked. (A. Bastian, _Inselgruppen in

Oceanien_, p. 112.)

In the Pelew Islands, Semper tells us that when approaching a

large water-hole he was surprised to hear an affrighted,

long-drawn cry from his native friends. "A girl's voice answered

out of the bushes, and my people held us back, for there were

women bathing there who would not allow us to pass. When I

remarked that they were only women, of whom they need not be

afraid, they replied that it was not so, that women had an

unbounded right to punish men who passed them when bathing

without their permission, and could inflict fines or even death.

On this account, the women's bathing place is a safe and favorite

spot for a secret rendezvous. Fortunately a lady's toilet lasts

but a short time in this island." (Carl Semper, _Die

Palau-Inseln_, 1873, p. 68.)

Among the Western Tribes of Torres Strait, Haddon states, "the

men were formerly nude, and the women wore only a leaf petticoat,

but I gather that they were a decent people; now both sexes are

prudish. A man would never go nude before me. The women would

never voluntarily expose their breasts to white men's gaze; this

applies to quite young girls, less so to old women. Amongst

themselves they are, of course, much less particular, but I

believe they are becoming more so.... Formerly, I imagine, there

was no restraint in speech; now there is a great deal of prudery;

for instance, the men were always much ashamed when I asked for

the name of the sexual parts of a woman." (A.C. Haddon,

"Ethnography of the Western Tribes of Torres Straits," _Journal

of the Anthropological Institute_, 1890, p. 336.) After a

subsequent expedition to the same region, the author reiterates

his observations as to the "ridiculously prudish manner" of the

men, attributable to missionary influence during the past thirty

years, and notes that even the children are affected by it. "At

Mabuiag, some small children were paddling in the water, and a

boy of about ten years of age reprimanded a little girl of five

or six years because she held up her dress too high." (_Reports

of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_,

vol. v, p. 272.)

"Although the women of New Guinea," Vahness says, "are very

slightly clothed, they are by no means lacking in a

well-developed sense of decorum. If they notice, for instance,

that any one is paying special attention to their nakedness, they

become ashamed and turn round." When a woman had to climb the

fence to enter the wild-pig enclosure, she would never do it in

Vahness's presence. (_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, Verhdlgen.,

1900, Heft 5, p. 415.)

In Australia "the feeling of decency is decidedly less prevalent

among males than females;" the clothed females retire out of

sight to bathe. (Curr, _Australian Race_.)

"Except for waist-bands, forehead-bands, necklets, and armlets,

and a conventional pubic tassel, shell, or, in the case of the

women, a small apron, the Central Australian native is naked. The

pubic tassel is a diminutive structure, about the size of a

five-shilling piece, made of a few short strands of fur-strings

flattened out into a fan-shape and attached to the pubic hair. As

the string, especially at _corrobboree_ times, is covered with

white kaolin or gypsum, it serves as a decoration rather than a

covering. Among the Arunta and Luritcha the women usually wear

nothing, but further north, a small apron is made and worn."

(Baldwin Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central

Australia_, p. 572.)

Of the Central Australians Stirling says: "No sense of shame of

exposure was exhibited by the men on removal of the diminutive

articles worn as conventional coverings; they were taken off

_coram populo_, and bartered without hesitation. On the other

hand, some little persuasion was necessary to allow inspection of

the effect of [urethral] sub-incision, assent being given only

after dismissal to a distance of the women and young children. As

to the women, it was nearly always observed that when in camp

without clothing they, especially the younger ones, exhibited by

their attitude a keen sense of modesty, if, indeed, a

consciousness of their nakedness can be thus considered. When we

desired to take a photograph of a group of young women, they were

very coy at the proposal to remove their scanty garments, and

retired behind a wall to do so; but once in a state of nudity

they made no objection to exposure to the camera." (_Report of

the Horn Scientific Expedition_, 1896, vol. iv, p. 37.)

In Northern Queensland "phallocrypts," or "penis-concealers,"

only used by the males at _corrobborees_ and other public

rejoicings, are either formed of pearl-shell or opossum-string.

The _koom-pa-ra_, or opossum-string form of phallocrypt, forms a

kind of tassel, and is colored red; it is hung from the

waist-belt in the middle line. In both sexes the privates are

only covered on special public occasions, or when in close

proximity to white settlements. (W. Roth, _Ethnological Studies

among the Northwest-Central-Queensland Aborigines_, 1897, pp.

114-115.)

"The principle of chastity," said Forster, of his experiences in

the South Sea Islands in their unspoilt state, "we found in many

families exceedingly well understood. I have seen many fine women

who, with a modesty mixed with politeness, refuse the greatest

and most tempting offers made them by our forward youths; often

they excuse themselves with a simple _tirra-tano_, 'I am

married,' and at other times they smiled and declined it with

_epia_, 'no.' ... Virtuous women hear a joke without emotion,

which, amongst us, might put some men to the blush. Neither

austerity and anger, nor joy and ecstasy is the consequence, but

sometimes a modest, dignified, serene smile spreads itself over

their face, and seems gently to rebuke the uncouth jester." (J.R.

Forster, _Observations made During a Voyage Round the World_,

1728, p. 392.)

Captain Cook, at Tahiti, in 1769, after performing Divine service

on Sunday, witnessed "Vespers of a very different kind. A young

man, near six feet high, performed the rites of Venus with a

little girl about eleven or twelve years of age, before several

of our people and a great number of the natives, without the

least sense of its being indecent or improper, but, as it

appeared, in perfect conformity to the custom of the place. Among

the spectators were several women of superior rank, who may

properly be said to have assisted at the ceremony; for they gave

instructions to the girl how to perform her part, which, young as

she was, she did not seem much to stand in need of." (J.

Hawkesworth, _Account of the Voyages_, etc., 1775, vol. i, p.

469.)

At Tahiti, according to Cook, it was customary to "gratify every

appetite and passion before witnesses," and it is added, "in the

conversation of these people, that which is the principal source

of their pleasure is always the principal topic; everything is

mentioned without any restraint or emotion, and in the most

direct terms, by both sexes." (Hawkesworth, op. cit., vol ii, p.

45.)

"I have observed," Captain Cook wrote, "that our friends in the

South Seas have not even the idea of indecency, with respect to

any object or any action, but this was by no means the case with

the inhabitants of New Zealand, in whose carriage and

conversation there was as much modest reserve and decorum with

respect to actions, which yet in their opinion were not criminal,

as are to be found among the politest people in Europe. The women

were not impregnable; but the terms and manner of compliance were

as decent as those in marriage among us, and according to their

notions, the agreement was as innocent. When any of our people

made an overture to any of their young women, he was given to

understand that the consent of her friends was necessary, and by

the influence of a proper present it was generally obtained; but

when these preliminaries were settled, it was also necessary to

treat the wife for a night with the same delicacy that is here

required by the wife for life, and the lover who presumed to take

any liberties by which this was violated, was sure to be

disappointed." (Hawkesworth, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 254.)

Cook found that the people of New Zealand "bring the prepuce over

the gland, and to prevent it from being drawn back by contraction

of the part, they tie the string which hangs from the girdle

round the end of it. The glans, indeed, seemed to be the only

part of their body which they were solicitous to conceal, for

they frequently threw off all their dress but the belt and

string, with the most careless indifference, but showed manifest

signs of confusion when, to gratify our curiosity, they were

requested to untie the string, and never consented but with the

utmost reluctance and shame.... The women's lower garment was

always bound fast round them, except when they went into the

water to catch lobsters, and then they took great care not to be

seen by the men. We surprised several of them at this employment,

and the chaste Diana, with her nymphs, could not have discovered

more confusion and distress at the sight of Actæon, than these

women expressed upon our approach. Some of them hid themselves

among the rocks, and the rest crouched down in the sea till they

had made themselves a girdle and apron of such weeds as they

could find, and when they came out, even with this veil, we could

see that their modesty suffered much pain by our presence."

(Hawkesworth, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 257-258.)

In Rotuma, in Polynesia, where the women enjoy much freedom, but

where, at all events in old days, married people were, as a rule,

faithful to each other, "the language is not chaste according to

our ideas, and there is a great deal of freedom in speaking of

immoral vices. In this connection a man and his wife will speak

freely to one another before their friends. I am informed,

though, by European traders well conversant with the language,

that there are grades of language, and that certain coarse

phrases would never be used to any decent woman; so that

probably, in their way, they have much modesty, only we cannot

appreciate it." (J. Stanley Gardiner, "The Natives of Rotuma,"

_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, 1898, p. 481.)

The men of Rotuma, says the same writer, are very clean, the

women also, bathing twice a day in the sea; but "bathing in

public without the _kukuluga_, or _sulu_ [loin-cloth, which is

the ordinary dress], around the waist is absolutely unheard of,

and would be much looked down upon." (_Journal of the

Anthropological Institute_, 1898, p. 410.)

In ancient Samoa the only necessary garment for either man or

woman was an apron of leaves, but they possessed so "delicate a

sense of propriety" that even "while bathing they have a girdle

of leaves or some other covering around the waist." (Turner,

_Samoa a Hundred Years Ago_, p. 121.)

After babyhood the Indians of Guiana are never seen naked. When

they change their single garment they retire. The women wear a

little apron, now generally made of European beads, but the

Warraus still make it of the inner bark of a tree, and some of

seeds. (Everard im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, 1883.)

The Mandurucu women of Brazil, according to Tocantins (quoted by

Mantegazza), are completely naked, but they are careful to avoid

any postures which might be considered indecorous, and they do

this so skilfully that it is impossible to tell when they have

their menstrual periods. (Mantegazza, _Fisiologia della Donna_,

cap 9.)

The Indians of Central Brazil have no "private parts." In men the

little girdle, or string, surrounding the lower part of the

abdomen, hides nothing; it is worn after puberty, the penis being

often raised and placed beneath it to lengthen the prepuce. The

women also use a little strip of bast that goes down the groin

and passes between the thighs. Among some tribes (Karibs, Tupis,

Nu-Arwaks) a little, triangular, coquettishly-made piece of

bark-bast comes just below the mons veneris; it is only a few

centimetres in width, and is called the _uluri. In both sexes

concealment of the sexual mucous membrane is attained_. These

articles cannot be called clothing. "The red thread of the

Trumai, the elegant _uluri_, and the variegated flag of the

Bororó attract attention, like ornaments, instead of drawing

attention away." Von den Steinen thinks this proceeding a

necessary protection against the attacks of insects, which are

often serious in Brazil. He does think, however, that there is

more than this, and that the people are ashamed to show the

glans penis. (Karl von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern

Zentral-Brasiliens_, 1894, pp. 190 et seq.)

Other travelers mention that on the Amazon among some tribes the

women are clothed and the men naked; among others the women

naked, and the men clothed. Thus, among the Guaycurus the men are

quite naked, while the women wear a short petticoat; among the

Uaupás the men always wear a loin-cloth, while the women are

quite naked.

"The feeling of modesty is very developed among the Fuegians, who

are accustomed to live naked. They manifest it in their bearing

and in the ease with which they show themselves in a state of

nudity, compared with the awkwardness, blushing, and shame which

both men and women exhibit if one gazes at certain parts of their

bodies. Among themselves this is never done even between husband

and wife. There is no Fuegian word for modesty, perhaps because

the feeling is universal among them." The women wear a minute

triangular garment of skin suspended between the thighs and never

removed, being merely raised during conjugal relations. (Hyades

and Deniker, _Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn_, vol. vii, pp.

239, 307, and 347.)

Among the Crow Indians of Montana, writes Dr. Holder, who has

lived with them for several years, "a sense of modesty forbids

the attendance upon the female in labor of any male, white man or

Indian, physician or layman. This antipathy to receiving

assistance at the hands of the physician is overcome as the

tribes progress toward civilization, and it is especially

noticeable that half-breeds almost constantly seek the

physician's aid." Dr. Holder mentions the case of a young woman

who, although brought near the verge of death in a very difficult

first confinement, repeatedly refused to allow him to examine

her; at last she consented; "her modest preparation was to take

bits of quilt and cover thighs and lips of vulva, leaving only

the aperture exposed.... Their modesty would not be so striking

were it not that, almost to a woman, the females of this tribe

are prostitutes, and for a consideration will admit the

connection of any man." (A.B. Holder, _American Journal of

Obstetrics_, vol. xxv, No. 6, 1892.)

"In every North American tribe, from the most northern to the

most southern, the skirt of the woman is longer than that of the

men. In Esquimau land the _parka_ of deerskin and sealskin

reaches to the knees. Throughout Central North America the

buckskin dress of the women reached quite to the ankles. The

West-Coast women, from Oregon to the Gulf of California, wore a

petticoat of shredded bark, of plaited grass, or of strings, upon

which were strung hundreds of seeds. Even in the most tropical

areas the rule was universal, as anyone can see from the codices

or in pictures of the natives." (Otis T. Mason, _Woman's Share in

Primitive Culture_, p. 237.)

Describing the loin-cloth worn by Nicobarese men, Man says: "From

the clumsy mode in which this garment is worn by the Shom

Pen--necessitating frequent readjustment of the folds--one is led

to infer that its use is not _de rigueur_, but reserved for

special occasions, as when receiving or visiting strangers."

(E.H. Man, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1886, p.

442.)

The semi-nude natives of the island of Nias in the Indian Ocean

are "modest by nature," paying no attention to their own nudity

or that of others, and much scandalized by any attempt to go

beyond the limits ordained by custom. When they pass near places

where women are bathing they raise their voices in order to warn

them of their presence, and even although any bold youth

addressed the women, and the latter replied, no attempt would be

made to approach them; any such attempt would be severely

punished by the head man of the village. (Modigliani, _Un Viaggio

a Nias_, p. 460.)

Man says that the Andamanese in modesty and self-respect compare

favorably with many classes among civilized peoples. "Women are

so modest that they will not renew their leaf-aprons in the

presence of one another, but retire to a secluded spot for this

purpose; even when parting with one of their _bod_ appendages

[tails of leaves suspended from back of girdle] to a female

friend, the delicacy they manifest for the feelings of the

bystanders in their mode of removing it amounts to prudishness;

yet they wear no clothing in the ordinary sense." (_Journal of

the Anthropological Institute_, 1883, pp. 94 and 331.)

Of the Garo women of Bengal Dalton says: "Their sole garment is a

piece of cloth less than a foot in width that just meets around

the loins, and in order that it may not restrain the limbs it is

only fastened where it meets under the hip at the upper corners.

The girls are thus greatly restricted in the positions they may

modestly assume, but decorum is, in their opinion, sufficiently

preserved if they only keep their legs well together when they

sit or kneel." (E.T. Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, 1872, p. 66.)

Of the Naga women of Assam it is said: "Of clothing there was not

much to see; but in spite of this I doubt whether we could excel

them in true decency and modesty. Ibn Muhammed Wali had already

remarked in his history of the conquest of Assam (1662-63), that

the Naga women only cover their breasts. They declare that it is

absurd to cover those parts of the body which everyone has been

able to see from their births, but that it is different with the

breasts, which appeared later, and are, therefore, to be covered.

Dalton (_Journal of the Asiatic Society_, Bengal, 41, 1, 84) adds

that in the presence of strangers Naga women simply cross their

arms over their breasts, without caring much what other charms

they may reveal to the observer. As regards some clans of the

naked Nagas, to whom the Banpara belong, this may still hold

good." (K. Klemm, "Peal's Ausflug nach Banpara," _Zeitschrift für

Ethnologie_, 1898, Heft 5, p. 334.)

"In Ceylon, a woman always bathes in public streams, but she

never removes all her clothes. She washes under the cloth, bit by

bit, and then slips on the dry, new cloth, and pulls out the wet

one from underneath (much in the same sliding way as servant

girls and young women in England). This is the common custom in

India and the Malay States. The breasts are always bare in their

own houses, but in the public roads are covered whenever a

European passes. The vulva is never exposed. They say that a

devil, imagined as a white and hairy being, might have

intercourse with them." (Private communication.)

In Borneo, "the _sirat_, called _chawal_ by the Malays, is a

strip of cloth a yard wide, worn round the loins and in between

the thighs, so as to cover the pudenda and perinæum; it is

generally six yards or so in length, but the younger men of the

present generation use as much as twelve or fourteen yards

(sometimes even more), which they twist and coil with great

precision round and round their body, until the waist and stomach

are fully enveloped in its folds." (H. Ling Roth, "Low's Natives

of Borneo," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1892, p.

36.)

"In their own houses in the depths of the forest the Dwarfs are

said to neglect coverings for decency in the men as in the women,

but certainly when they emerge from the forest into the villages

of the agricultural Negroes, they are always observed to be

wearing some small piece of bark-cloth or skin, or a bunch of

leaves over the pudenda. Elsewhere in all the regions of Africa

visited by the writer, or described by other observers, a neglect

of decency in the male has only been recorded among the Efik

people of Old Calabar. The nudity of women is another question.

In parts of West Africa, between the Niger and the Gaboon

(especially on the Cameroon River, at Old Calabar, and in the

Niger Delta), it is, or was, customary for young women to go

about completely nude before they were married. In Swaziland,

until quite recently, unmarried women and very often matrons went

stark naked. Even amongst the prudish Baganda, who made it a

punishable offense for a man to expose any part of his leg above

the knee, the wives of the King would attend at his Court

perfectly naked. Among the Kavirondo, all unmarried girls are

completely nude, and although women who have become mothers are

supposed to wear a tiny covering before and behind, they very

often completely neglect to do so when in their own villages.

Yet, as a general rule, among the Nile Negroes, and still more

markedly among the Hamites and people of Masai stock, the women

are particular about concealing the pudenda, whereas the men are

ostentatiously naked. The Baganda hold nudity in the male to be

such an abhorrent thing that for centuries they have referred

with scorn and disgust to the Nile Negroes as the 'naked people.'

Male nudity extends northwest to within some 200 miles of

Khartum, or, in fact, wherever the Nile Negroes of the

Dinka-Acholi stock inhabit the country." (Sir H.H. Johnston,

_Uganda Protectorate_, vol. ii, pp. 669-672.)

Among the Nilotic Ja-luo, Johnston states that "unmarried men go

naked. Married men who have children wear a small piece of goat

skin, which, though quite inadequate for purposes of decency, is,

nevertheless, a very important thing in etiquette, for a married

man with a child must on no account call on his mother-in-law

without wearing this piece of goat's skin. To call on her in a

state of absolute nudity would be regarded as a serious insult,

only to be atoned for by the payment of goats. Even if under the

new dispensation he wears European trousers, he must have a piece

of goat's skin underneath. Married women wear a tail of strings

behind." It is very bad manners for a woman to serve food to her

husband without putting on this tail. (Sir H.H. Johnston, _Uganda

Protectorate_, vol. ii, p. 781.)

Mrs. French-Sheldon remarks that the Masai and other East African

tribes, with regard to menstruation, "observe the greatest

delicacy, and are more than modest." (_Journal of the

Anthropological Institute_, 1894, p. 383.)

At the same time the Masai, among whom the penis is of enormous

size, consider it disreputable to conceal that member, and in the

highest degree reputable to display it, even ostentatiously. (Sir

H.H. Johnston, _Kilima-njaro Expedition_, p. 413.)

Among the African Dinka, who are scrupulously clean and delicate

(smearing themselves with burnt cows' dung, and washing

themselves daily with cows' urine), and are exquisite cooks,

reaching in many respects a higher stage of civilization, in

Schweinfurth's opinion, than is elsewhere attained in Africa,

only the women wear aprons. The neighboring tribes of the red

soil--Bongo, Mittoo, Niam-Niam, etc.--are called "women" by the

Dinka, because among these tribes the men wear an apron, while

the women obstinately refuse to wear any clothes whatsoever of

skin or stuff, going into the woods every day, however, to get a

supple bough for a girdle, with, perhaps, a bundle of fine grass.

(Schweinfurth, _Heart of Africa_, vol. i, pp. 152, etc.)

Lombroso and Carrara, examining some Dinka negroes brought from

the White Nile, remark: "As to their psychology, what struck us

first was the exaggeration of their modesty; not in a single case

would the men allow us to examine their genital organs or the

women their breasts; we examined the tattoo-marks on the chest of

one of the women, and she remained sad and irritable for two days

afterward." They add that in sexual and all other respects these

people are highly moral. (Lombroso and Carrara, _Archivio di

Psichiatria_, 1896, vol. xvii, fasc. 4.)

"The negro is very rarely knowingly indecent or addicted to

lubricity," says Sir H.H. Johnston. "In this land of nudity,

which I have known for seven years, I do not remember once having

seen an indecent gesture on the part of either man or woman, and

only very rarely (and that not among unspoiled savages) in the

case of that most shameless member of the community--the little

boy." He adds that the native dances are only an apparent

exception, being serious in character, though indecent to our

eyes, almost constituting a religious ceremony. The only really

indecent dance indigenous to Central Africa "is one which

originally represented the act of coition, but it is so altered

to a stereotyped formula that its exact purport is not obvious

until explained somewhat shyly by the natives.... It may safely

be asserted that the negro race in Central Africa is much more

truly modest, is much more free from real vice, than are most

European nations. Neither boys nor girls wear clothing (unless

they are the children of chiefs) until nearing the age of

puberty. Among the Wankonda, practically no covering is worn by

the men except a ring of brass wire around the stomach. The

Wankonda women are likewise almost entirely naked, but generally

cover the pudenda with a tiny bead-work apron, often a piece of

very beautiful workmanship, and exactly resembling the same

article worn by Kaffir women. A like degree of nudity prevails

among many of the Awemba, among the A-lungu, the Batumbuka, and

the Angoni. Most of the Angoni men, however, adopt the Zulu

fashion of covering the glans penis with a small wooden case or

the outer shell of a fruit. The Wa-Yao have a strong sense of

decency in matters of this kind, which is the more curious since

they are more given to obscenity in their rites, ceremonies, and

dances than any other tribe. Not only is it extremely rare to see

any Yao uncovered, but both men and women have the strongest

dislike to exposing their persons even to the inspection of a

doctor. The Atonga and many of the A-nyanga people, and all the

tribes west of Nyassa (with the exception possibly of the

A-lunda) have not the Yao regard for decency, and, although they

can seldom or ever be accused of a deliberate intention to expose

themselves, the men are relatively indifferent as to whether

their nakedness is or is not concealed, though the women are

modest and careful in this respect." (H.H. Johnston, _British

Central Africa_, 1897, pp. 408-419.)

In Azimba land, Central Africa, H. Crawford Angus, who has spent

many years in this part of Africa, writes: "It has been my

experience that the more naked the people, and the more to us

obscene and shameless their manners and customs, the more moral

and strict they are in the matter of sexual intercourse." He

proceeds to give a description of the _chensamwali_, or

initiation ceremony of girls at puberty, a season of rejoicing

when the girl is initiated into all the secrets of marriage, amid

songs and dances referring to the act of coition. "The whole

matter is looked upon as a matter of course, and not as a thing

to be ashamed of or to hide, and, being thus openly treated of

and no secrecy made about it, you find in this tribe that the

women are very virtuous. They know from the first all that is to

be known, and cannot see any reason for secrecy concerning

natural laws or the powers and senses that have been given them

from birth." (_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1898, Heft 6, p.

479.)

Of the Monbuttu of Central Africa, another observer says: "It is

surprising how a Monbuttu woman of birth can, without the aid of

dress, impress others with her dignity and modesty." (_British

Medical Journal_. June 14, 1890.)

"The women at Upoto wear no clothes whatever, and came up to us

in the most unreserved manner. An interesting gradation in the

arrangement of the female costume has been observed by us: as we

ascended the Congo, the higher up the river we found ourselves,

the higher the dress reached, till it has now, at last,

culminated in absolute nudity." (T.H. Parke, _My Personal

Experiences in Equatorial Africa_, 1891, p. 61.)

"There exists throughout the Congo population a marked

appreciation of the sentiment of decency and shame as applied to

private actions," says Mr. Herbert Ward. In explanation of the

nudity of the women at Upoto, a chief remarked to Ward that

"concealment is food for the inquisitive." (_Journal of the

Anthropological Institute_, 1895, p. 293.)

In the Gold Coast and surrounding countries complete nudity is

extremely rare, except when circumstances make it desirable; on

occasion clothing is abandoned with unconcern. "I have on several

occasions," says Dr. Freeman, "seen women at Accra walk from the

beach, where they have been bathing, across the road to their

houses, where they would proceed to dry themselves, and resume

their garments; and women may not infrequently be seen bathing in

pools by the wayside, conversing quite unconstrainedly with their

male acquaintances, who are seated on the bank. The mere

unclothed body conveys to their minds no idea of indecency.

Immodesty and indelicacy of manner are practically unknown." He

adds that the excessive zeal of missionaries in urging their

converts to adopt European dress--which they are only too ready

to do--is much to be regretted, since the close-fitting, thin

garments are really less modest than the loose clothes they

replace, besides being much less cleanly. (R.A. Freeman, _Travels

and Life in Ashanti and Jaman_, 1898, p. 379.)

At Loango, says Pechuel-Loesche, "the well-bred negress likes to

cover her bosom, and is sensitive to critical male eyes; if she

meets a European when without her overgarment, she instinctively,

though not without coquetry, takes the attitude of the Medicean

Venus." Men and women bathe separately, and hide themselves from

each other when naked. The women also exhibit shame when

discovered suckling their babies. (_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_,

1878, pp. 27-31.)

The Koran (Sura XXIV) forbids showing the pudenda, as well as the

face, yet a veiled Mohammedan woman, Stern remarks, even in the

streets of Constantinople, will stand still and pull up her

clothes to scratch her private parts, and in Beyrout, he saw

Turkish prostitutes, still veiled, place themselves in the

position for coitus. (B. Stern, _Medizin, etc., in der Türkei_,

vol. ii, p. 162.)

"An Englishman surprised a woman while bathing in the Euphrates;

she held her hands over her face, without troubling as to what

else the stranger might see. In Egypt, I have myself seen quite

naked young peasant girls, who hastened to see us, after covering

their faces." (C. Niebuhr, _Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien_,

1774, vol. i, p. 165.)

When Helfer was taken to visit the ladies in the palace of the

Imam of Muskat, at Buscheir, he found that their faces were

covered with black masks, though the rest of the body might be

clothed in a transparent sort of crape; to look at a naked face

was very painful to the ladies themselves; even a mother never

lifts the mask from the face of her daughter after the age of

twelve; that is reserved for her lord and husband. "I observed

that the ladies looked at me with a certain confusion, and after

they had glanced into my face, lowered their eyes, ashamed. On

making inquiries, I found that my uncovered face was indecent, as

a naked person would be to us. They begged me to assume a mask,

and when a waiting-woman had bound a splendidly decorated one

round my head, they all exclaimed: 'Tahip! tahip!'--beautiful,

beautiful." (J.W. Helfer, _Reisen in Vorderasian und Indien_,

vol. ii, p. 12.)

In Algeria--in the provinces of Constantine, in Biskra, even

Aures,--"among the women especially, not one is restrained by any

modesty in unfastening her girdle to any comer" (when a search

was being made for tattoo-marks on the lower extremities). "In

spite of the great licentiousness of the manners," the same

writer continues, "the Arab and the Kabyle possess great personal

modesty, and with difficulty are persuaded to exhibit the body

nude; is it the result of real modesty, or of their inveterate

habits of active pederasty? Whatever the cause, they always hide

the sexual organs with their hands or their handkerchiefs, and

are disagreeably affected even by the slightest touch of the

doctor." (Batut, _Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, January

15, 1893.)

"Moslem modesty," remarks Wellhausen, "was carried to great

lengths, insufficient clothing being forbidden. It was marked

even among the heathen Arabs, as among Semites and old

civilizations generally; we must not be deceived by the

occasional examples of immodesty in individual cases. The Sunna

prescribes that a man shall not uncover himself even to himself,

and shall not wash naked--from fear of God and of spirits; Job

did so, and atoned for it heavily. When in Arab antiquity

grown-up persons showed themselves naked, it was only under

extraordinary circumstances, and to attain unusual ends.... Women

when mourning uncovered not only the face and bosom, but also

tore all their garments. The messenger who brought bad news tore

his garments. A mother desiring to bring pressure to bear on her

son took off her clothes. A man to whom vengeance is forbidden

showed his despair and disapproval by uncovering his posterior

and strewing earth on his head, or by raising his garment behind

and covering his head with it. This was done also in fulfilling

natural necessities." (Wellhausen, _Reste Arabischen Heidentums_,

1897, pp. 173, 195-196.)

Mantegazza mentions that a Lapland woman refused even for the sum

of 150 francs to allow him to photograph her naked, though the

men placed themselves before the camera in the costume of Adam

for a much smaller sum. In the same book Mantegazza remarks that

in the eighteenth century, travelers found it extremely difficult

to persuade Samoyed women to show themselves naked. Among the

same people, he says, the newly-married wife must conceal her

face from her husband for two months after marriage, and only

then yield to his embraces. (Mantegazza, _La Donna_, cap. IV.)

"The beauty of a Chinese woman," says Dr. Matignon, "resides

largely in her foot. 'A foot which is not deformed is a

dishonor,' says a poet. For the husband the foot is more

interesting than the face. Only the husband may see his wife's

foot naked. A Chinese woman is as reticent in showing her feet to

a man as a European woman her breasts. I have often had to treat

Chinese women with ridiculously small feet for wounds and

excoriations, the result of tight-bandaging. They exhibited the

prudishness of school-girls, blushed, turned their backs to

unfasten the bandages, and then concealed the foot in a cloth,

leaving only the affected part uncovered. Modesty is a question

of convention; Chinese have it for their feet," (J. Matignon, "A

propos d'un Pied de Chinoise," _Archives d'Anthropologie

Criminelle_, 1898, p. 445.)

Among the Yakuts of Northeast Siberia, "there was a well-known

custom according to which a bride should avoid showing herself or

her uncovered body to her father-in-law. In ancient times, they

say, a bride concealed herself for seven years from her

father-in-law, and from the brothers and other masculine

relations of her husband.... The men also tried not to meet her,

saying, 'The poor child will be ashamed.' If a meeting could not

be avoided the young woman put a mask on her face.... Nowadays,

the young wives only avoid showing to their male relatives-in-law

the uncovered body. Amongst the rich they avoid going about in

the presence of these in the chemise alone. In some places, they

lay especial emphasis on the fact that it is a shame for young

wives to show their uncovered hair and feet to the male relatives

of their husbands. On the other side, the male relatives of the

husband ought to avoid showing to the young wife the body

uncovered above the elbow or the sole of the foot, and they ought

to avoid indecent expressions and vulgar vituperations in her

presence.... That these observances are not the result of a

specially delicate modesty, is proved by the fact that even young

girls constantly twist thread upon the naked thigh, unembarrassed

by the presence of men who do not belong to the household; nor do

they show any embarrassment if a strange man comes upon them when

uncovered to the waist. The one thing which they do not like, and

at which they show anger, is that such persons look carefully at

their uncovered feet.... The former simplicity, with lack of

shame in uncovering the body, is disappearing." (Sieroshevski,

"The Yakuts," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,

Jan.-June, 1901, p. 93.)

"In Japan (Captain ---- tells me), the bathing-place of the women

was perfectly open (the shampooing, indeed, was done by a man),

and Englishmen were offered no obstacle, nor excited the least

repugnance; indeed, girls after their bath would freely pass,

sometimes as if holding out their hair for innocent admiration,

and this continued until countrymen of ours, by vile laughter and

jests, made them guard themselves from insult by secrecy. So

corruption spreads, and heathenism is blacker by our contact."

(Private communication.)

"Speaking once with a Japanese gentleman, I observed that we

considered it an act of indecency for men and women to wash

together. He shrugged his shoulders as he answered: 'But these

Westerns have such prurient minds!'" (Mitford, _Tales of Old

Japan_, 1871.)

Dr. Carl Davidsohn, who remarks that he had ample opportunity of

noting the great beauty of the Japanese women in a national

dance, performed naked, points out that the Japanese have no

æsthetic sense for the nude. "This was shown at the Jubilee

Exposition at Kyoto. Here, among many rooms full of art objects,

one was devoted to oil pictures in the European manner. Among

these only one represented a nude figure, a Psyche, or Truth. It

was the first time such a picture had been seen. Men and women

crowded around it. After they had gazed at it for a time, most

began to giggle and laugh; some by their air and gestures clearly

showed their disgust; all found that it was not æsthetic to paint

a naked woman, though in Nature, nakedness was in no way

offensive to them. In the middle of the same city, at a fountain

reputed to possess special virtues, men and women will stand

together naked and let the water run over them." (Carl

Davidsohn, "Das Nackte bei den Japanern," _Globus_, 1896, No.

16.)

"It is very difficult to investigate the hairiness of Ainu

women," Baelz remarks, "for they possess a really incredible

degree of modesty. Even when in summer they bathe--which happens

but seldom--they keep their clothes on." He records that he was

once asked to examine a girl at the Mission School, in order to

advise as regards the treatment of a diseased spine; although she

had been at the school for seven years, she declared that "she

would rather die than show her back to a man, even though a

doctor." (Baelz, "Die Aino," _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1901,

Heft 2, p. 178.)

The Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans, appear to have been accustomed

to cover the foreskin with the _kynodesme_ (a band), or the

_fibula_ (a ring), for custom and modesty demanded that the glans

should be concealed. Such covering is represented in persons who

were compelled to be naked, and is referred to by Celsus as

"decori causâ." (L. Stieda, "Anatomisch-archäologische Studien,"

_Anatomische Hefte_, Bd. XIX, Heft 2, 1902.)

"Among the Lydians, and, indeed, among the barbarians generally,

it is considered a deep disgrace, even for a man, to be seen

naked." (Herodotus, Book I, Chapter X.)

"The simple dress which is now common was first worn in Sparta,

and there, more than anywhere else, the life of the rich was

assimilated to that of the people. The Lacedæmonians, too, were

the first who, in their athletic exercises, stripped naked and

rubbed themselves over with oil. This was not the ancient custom;

athletes formerly, even when they were contending at Olympia,

wore girdles about their loins [earlier still, the Mycenæans had

always worn a loin-cloth], a practice which lasted until quite

lately, and still persists among barbarians, especially those of

Asia, where the combatants at boxing and wrestling matches wear

girdles." (Thucydides, _History_, Book I, Chapter VI.)

"The notion of the women exercising naked in the schools with the

men ... at the present day would appear truly ridiculous.... Not

long since it was thought discreditable and ridiculous among the

Greeks, as it is now among most barbarous nations, for men to be

seen naked. And when the Cretans first, and after them the

Lacedæmonians, began the practice of gymnastic exercises, the

wits of the time had it in their power to make sport of those

novelties.... As for the man who laughs at the idea of undressed

women going through gymnastic exercises, as a means of revealing

what is most perfect, his ridicule is but 'unripe fruit plucked

from the tree of wisdom.'" (Plato, _Republic_, Book V.)

According to Plutarch, however, among the Spartans, at all

events, nakedness in women was not ridiculous, since the

institutes of Lycurgus ordained that at solemn feasts and

sacrifices the young women should dance naked and sing, the young

men standing around in a circle to see and hear them. Aristotle

says that in his time Spartan girls only wore a very slight

garment. As described by Pausanias, and as shown by a statue in

the Vatican, the ordinary tunic, which was the sole garment worn

by women when running, left bare the right shoulder and breast,

and only reached to the upper third of the thighs. (M.M. Evans,

_Chapters on Greek Dress_, p. 34.)

Among the Greeks who were inclined to accept the doctrines of

Cynicism, it was held that, while shame is not unreasonable, what

is good may be done and discussed before all men. There are a

number of authorities who say that Crates and Hipparchia

consummated their marriage in the presence of many spectators.

Lactantius (_Inst._ iii, 15) says that the practice was common,

but this Zeller is inclined to doubt. (Zeller, _Socrates and the

Socratic Schools_, translated from the Third German Edition,

1897.)

"Among the Tyrrhenians, who carry their luxury to an

extraordinary pitch, Timæus, in his first book, relates that the

female servants wait on the men in a state of nudity. And

Theopompus, in the forty-third book of his _History_, states that

it is a law among the Tyrrhenians that all their women should be

in common; and that the women pay the greatest attention to their

persons, and often practice gymnastic exercises, naked, among the

men, and sometimes with one another; for that it is not accounted

shameful for them to be seen naked.... Nor is it reckoned among

the Tyrrhenians at all disgraceful either to do or suffer

anything in the open air, or to be seen while it is going on; for

it is quite the custom of their country, and they are so far from

thinking it disgraceful that they even say, when the master of

the house is indulging his appetite, and anyone asks for him,

that he is doing so and so, using the coarsest possible words....

And they are very beautiful, as is natural for people to be who

live delicately, and who take care of their persons." (Athenæus,

_Deipnosophists_, Yonge's translation, vol. iii, p. 829.)

Dennis throws doubt on the foregoing statement of Athenæus

regarding the Tyrrhenians or Etruscans, and points out that the

representations of women in Etruscan tombs shows them as clothed,

even the breast being rarely uncovered. Nudity, he remarks, was a

Greek, not an Etruscan, characteristic. "To the nudity of the

Spartan women I need but refer; the Thessalian women are

described by Persæus dancing at banquets naked, or with a very

scanty covering (_apud_ Athenæus, xiii, c. 86). The maidens of

Chios wrestled naked with the youths in the gymnasium, which

Athenæus (xiii, 20) pronounces to be 'a beautiful sight.' And at

the marriage feast of Caranus, the Macedonian women tumblers

performed naked before the guests (Athenæus, iv, 3)." (G. Dennis,

_Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_, 1883, vol. i, p. 321.)

In Rome, "when there was at first much less freedom in this

matter than in Greece, the bath became common to both sexes, and

though each had its basin and hot room apart, they could see each

other, meet, speak, form intrigues, arrange meetings, and

multiply adulteries. At first, the baths were so dark that men

and women could wash side by side, without recognizing each other

except by the voice; but soon the light of day was allowed to

enter from every side. 'In the bath of Scipio,' said Seneca,

'there were narrow ventholes, rather than windows, hardly

admitting enough light to outrage modesty; but nowadays, baths

are called caves if they do not receive the sun's rays through

large windows.' ... Hadrian severely prohibited this mingling of

men and women, and ordained separate lavaera for the sexes.

Marcus Aurelius and Alexander Severus renewed this edict, but in

the interval, Heliogabalus had authorized the sexes to meet in

the baths." (Dufour, _Histoire de la Prostitution_, vol. ii, Ch.

XVIII; cf. Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,

Art. Balneæ.)

In Rome, according to ancient custom, actors were compelled to

wear drawers (_subligaculum_) on the stage, in order to safeguard

the modesty of Roman matrons. Respectable women, it seems, also

always wore some sort of _subligaculum_, even sometimes when

bathing. The name was also applied to a leathern girdle laced

behind, which they were occasionally made to wear as a girdle of

chastity. (Dufour, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 150.) Greek women also

wore a cloth round the loins when taking the bath, as did the men

who bathed there; and a woman is represented bathing and wearing

a sort of thin combinations reaching to the middle of the thigh.

(Smith's _Dictionary_, loc. cit.) At a later period, St.

Augustine refers to the _compestria_, the drawers or apron worn

by young men who stripped for exercise in the _campus_. (_De

Civitate Dei_, Bk. XIV, Ch. XVII.)

Lecky (_History of Morals_, vol. ii, p. 318), brings together

instances of women, in both Pagan and early Christian times, who

showed their modesty by drawing their garments around them, even

at the moment that they were being brutally killed. Plutarch, in

his essay on the "Virtues of Women,"--moralizing on the

well-known story of the young women of Milesia, among whom an

epidemic of suicide was only brought to an end by the decree that

in future women who hanged themselves should be carried naked

through the market-places,--observes: "They, who had no dread of

the most terrible things in the world, death and pain, could not

abide the imagination of dishonor, and exposure to shame, even

after death."

In the second century the physician Aretæus, writing at Rome,

remarks: "In many cases, owing to involuntary restraint from

modesty at assemblies, and at banquets, the bladder becomes

distended, and from the consequent loss of its contractile power,

it no longer evacuates the urine." (_On the Causes and Symptoms

of Acute Diseases_, Book II, Chapter X.)

Apuleius, writing in the second century, says: "Most women, in

order to exhibit their native gracefulness and allurements,

divest themselves of all their garments, and long to show their

naked beauty, being conscious that they shall please more by the

rosy redness of their skin than by the golden splendor of their

robes." (Thomas Taylor's translation of _Metamorphosis_, p. 28.)

Christianity seems to have profoundly affected habits of thought

and feeling by uniting together the merely natural emotion of

sexual reserve with, on the one hand, the masculine virtue of

modesty--_modestia_--and, on the other, the prescription of

sexual abstinence. Tertullian admirably illustrates this

confusion, and his treatises _De Pudicitia_ and _De Cultu

Feminarum_ are instructive from the present point of view. In the

latter he remarks (Book II, Chapter I): "Salvation--and not of

women only, but likewise of men--consists in the exhibition,

principally, of modesty. Since we are all the temple of God,

modesty is the sacristan and priestess of that temple, who is to

suffer nothing unclean or profane to enter it, for fear that the

God who inhabits it should be offended.... Most women, either

from simple ignorance or from dissimulation, have the hardihood

so to walk as if modesty consisted only in the integrity of the

flesh, and in turning away from fornication, and there were no

need for anything else,--in dress and ornament, the studied

graces of form,--wearing in their gait the self-same appearance

as the women of the nations from whom the sense of _true_ modesty

is absent."

The earliest Christian ideal of modesty, not long maintained, is

well shown in an epistle which, there is some reason to suppose,

was written by Clement of Rome. "And if we see it to be requisite

to stand and pray for the sake of the woman, and to speak words

of exhortation and edification, we call the brethren and all the

holy sisters and maidens, likewise all the other women who are

there, with all modesty and becoming behavior, to come and feast

on the truth. And those among us who are skilled in speaking,

speak to them, and exhort them in those words which God has given

us. And then we pray, and salute one another, the men the men.

But the women and the maidens will wrap their hands in their

garments; we also, with circumspection and with all purity, our

eyes looking upward, shall wrap our right hand in our garments;

and then they will come and give us the salutation on our right

hand, wrapped in our garments. Then we go where God permits us."

(_Two Epistles Concerning Virginity_; Second Epistle, Chapter

III, vol. xiv. Ante-Nicene Christian Library, p. 384.)

"Women will scarce strip naked before their own husbands,

affecting a plausible pretense of modesty," writes Clement of

Alexandria, about the end of the second century, "but any others

who wish may see them at home, shut up in their own baths, for

they are not ashamed to strip before spectators, as if exposing

their persons for sale. The baths are opened promiscuously to men

and women; and there they strip for licentious indulgence (for,

from looking, men get to loving), as if their modesty had been

washed away in the bath. Those who have not become utterly

destitute of modesty shut out strangers, but bathe with their own

servants, and strip naked before their slaves, and are rubbed by

them, giving to the crouching menial liberty to lust, by

permitting fearless handling, for those who are introduced before

their naked mistresses while in the bath, study to strip

themselves in order to show audacity in lust, casting off fear in

consequence of the wicked custom. The ancient athletes, ashamed

to exhibit a man naked, preserved their modesty by going through

the contest in drawers; but these women, divesting themselves of

their modesty along with their chemise, wish to appear beautiful,

but, contrary to their wish, are simply proved to be wicked."

(Clement of Alexandria, _Pædagogus_, Book III, Chapter V. For

elucidations of this passage, see Migne's _Patrologiæ Cursus

Completus_, vol. vii.) Promiscuous bathing was forbidden by the

early Apostolical Constitutions, but Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage,

found it necessary, in the third century, to upbraid even virgins

vowed to chastity for continuing the custom. "What of those," he

asks, "who frequent baths, who prostitute to eyes that are

curious to lust, bodies that are dedicated to chastity and

modesty? They who disgracefully behold naked men, and are seen

naked by men? Do they not themselves afford enticement to vice?

Do they not solicit and invite the desires of those present to

their own corruption and wrong? 'Let every one,' say you, 'look

to the disposition with which he comes thither: my care is only

that of refreshing and washing my poor body.' That kind of

defence does not clear you, nor does it excuse the crime of

lasciviousness and wantonness. Such a washing defiles; it does

not purify nor cleanse the limbs, but stains them. You behold no

one immodestly, but you, yourself, are gazed upon immodestly; you

do not pollute your eyes with disgraceful delight, but in

delighting others you yourself are polluted; you make a show of

the bathing-place; the places where you assemble are fouler than

a theatre. There all modesty is put off; together with the

clothing of garments, the honor and modesty of the body is laid

aside, virginity is exposed, to be pointed at and to be

handled.... Let your baths be performed with women, whose

behavior is modest towards you." (Cyprian, _De Habitu Virginum_,

cap. 19, 21.) The Church carried the same spirit among the

barbarians of northern Europe, and several centuries later the

promiscuous bathing of men and women was prohibited in some of

the Penitentials. (The custom was, however, preserved here and

there in Northern Europe, even to the end of the eighteenth

century, or later. In Rudeck's _Geschichte der öffentlichen

Sittlichkeit in Deutschland_, an interesting chapter, with

contemporary illustrations, is devoted to this custom; also, Max

Bauer, _Das Geschlechtsleben in der Deutschen Vergangenheit_, pp.

216-265.)

"Women," says Clement again, "should not seek to be graceful by

avoiding broad drinking vessels that oblige them to stretch their

mouths, in order to drink from narrow alabastra that cause them

indecently to throw back the head, revealing to men their necks

and breasts. The mere thought of what she is ought to inspire a

woman with modesty.... On no account must a woman be permitted to

show to a man any portion of her body naked, for fear lest both

fall: the one by gazing eagerly, the other by delighting to

attract those eager glances." (_Pædagogus_, Book II, Chapter V.)

James, Bishop of Nisibis, in the fourth century, was a man of

great holiness. We are told by Thedoret that once, when James had

newly come into Persia, it was vouchsafed to him to perform a

miracle under the following circumstances: He chanced to pass by

a fountain where young women were washing their linen, and, his

modesty being profoundly shocked by the exposure involved in this

occupation, he cursed the fountain, which instantly dried up, and

he changed the hair of the girls from black to a sandy color.

(Jortin, _Remarks on Ecclesiastical History_, vol. iii, p. 4.)

Procopius, writing in the sixth century after Christ, and

narrating how the Empress Theodora, in early life, would often

appear almost naked before the public in the theatre, adds that

she would willingly have appeared altogether nude, but that "no

woman is allowed to expose herself altogether, unless she wears

at least short drawers over the lower part of the abdomen."

Chrysostom mentions, at the end of the fourth century, that

Arcadius attempted to put down the August festival (Majuma),

during which women appeared naked in the theatres, or swimming in

large baths.

In mediæval days, "ladies, at all events, as represented by the

poets, were not, on the whole, very prudish. Meleranz surprised a

lady who was taking a bath under a lime tree; the bath was

covered with samite, and by it was a magnificent ivory bed,

surrounded by tapestries representing the history of Paris and

Helen, the destruction of Troy, the adventures of Æneas, etc. As

Meleranz rides by, the lady's waiting-maids run away; she

herself, however, with quick decision, raises the samite which

covers the tub, and orders him to wait on her in place of the

maids. He brings her shift and mantle, and shoes, and then stands

aside till she is dressed; when she has placed herself on the

bed, she calls him back and commands him to drive away the flies

while she sleeps. Strange to say, the men are represented as more

modest than the women. When two maidens prepared a bath for

Parzival, and proposed to bathe him, according to custom, the

inexperienced young knight was shy, and would not enter the bath

until they had gone; on another occasion, he jumped quickly into

bed when the maidens entered the room. When Wolfdieterich was

about to undress, he had to ask the ladies who pressed around him

to leave him alone for a short time, as he was ashamed they

should see him naked. When Amphons of Spain, bewitched by his

step-mother into a were-wolf, was at last restored, and stood

suddenly naked before her, he was greatly ashamed. The maiden who

healed Iwein was tender of his modesty. In his love-madness, the

hero wanders for a time naked through the wood; three women find

him asleep, and send a waiting-maid to annoint him with salve;

when he came to himself, the maiden hid herself. On the whole,

however, the ladies were not so delicate; they had no hesitation

in bathing with gentlemen, and on these occasions would put their

finest ornaments on their heads. I know no pictures of the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries representing such a scene, but

such baths in common are clearly represented in miniatures of the

fifteenth century." (A. Schultz, _Das Höfische Leben zur Zeit der

Minnesänger_, vol. i, p. 225.)

"In the years 1450-70, the use of the cod-piece was introduced,

whereby the attributes of manhood were accentuated in the most

shameless manner. It was, in fact, the avowed aim at that period

to attract attention to these parts. The cod-piece was sometimes

colored differently from the rest of the garments, often stuffed

out to enlarge it artificially, and decorated with ribbons."

(Rudeck, _Geschichte der öffentlichen Sittlichkeit in

Deutschland_, pp. 45-48; Dufour, _Histoire de la Prostitution_,

vol. vi, pp. 21-23. Groos refers to the significance of this

fashion, _Spiele der Menschen_, p. 337.)

"The first shirt began to be worn [in Germany] in the sixteenth

century. From this fact, as well as from the custom of public

bathing, we reach the remarkable result, that for the German

people, the sight of complete nakedness was the daily rule up to

the sixteenth century. Everyone undressed completely before going

to bed, and, in the vapor-baths, no covering was used. Again, the

dances, both of the peasants and the townspeople, were

characterized by very high leaps into the air. It was the chief

delight of the dancers for the male to raise his partner as high

as possible in the air, so that her dress flew up. That feminine

modesty was in this respect very indifferent, we know from

countless references made in the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries. It must not be forgotten that throughout the middle

ages women wore no underclothes, and even in the seventeenth

century, the wearing of drawers by Italian women was regarded as

singular. That with the disappearance of the baths, and the use

of body-linen, a powerful influence was exerted on the creation

of modesty, there can be little doubt." (Rudeck, op. cit., pp.

57, 399, etc.)

In 1461, when Louis XI entered Paris, three very beautiful

maidens, quite naked, represented the Syrens, and declaimed poems

before him; they were greatly admired by the public. In 1468,

when Charles the Bold entered Lille, he was specially pleased,

among the various festivities, with a representation of the

Judgment of Paris, in which the three goddesses were nude. When

Charles the Fifth entered Antwerp, the most beautiful maidens of

the city danced before him, in nothing but gauze, and were

closely contemplated by Dürer, as he told his friend, Melancthon.

(B. Ritter, "Nuditäten im Mittelalter," _Jahrbücher für

Wissenschaft und Kunst_, 1855, p. 227; this writer shows how

luxury, fashion, poverty, and certain festivals, all combined to

make nudity familiar; cf. Fahne, _Der Carneval_, p. 249. Dulaure

quotes many old writers concerning the important part played by

nude persons in ancient festivals, _Des Divinités Génératrices_,

Chapter XIV.)

Passek, a Polish officer who wrote an account of his campaigns,

admired the ladies of Denmark in 1658, but considered their

customs immodest. "Everyone sleeps naked as at birth, and none

consider it shameful to dress or undress before others. No

notice, even, is taken of the guest, and in the light one garment

is taken off after another, even the chemise is hung on the hook.

Then the door is bolted, the light blown out, and one goes to

bed. As we blamed their ways, saying that among us a woman would

not act so, even in the presence of her husband alone, they

replied that they knew nothing of such shame, and that there was

no need to be ashamed of limbs which God had created. Moreover,

to sleep without a shift was good, because, like the other

garments, it sufficiently served the body during the day. Also,

why take fleas and other insects to bed with one? Although our

men teased them in various ways, they would not change their

habits." (Passek, _Denkwürdigkeiten_, German translation, p. 14.)

Until late in the seventeenth century, women in England, as well

as France, suffered much in childbirth from the ignorance and

superstition of incompetent midwives, owing to the prevailing

conceptions of modesty, which rendered it impossible (as it is

still, to some extent, in some semi-civilized lands) for male

physicians to attend them. Dr. Willoughby, of Derby, tells how,

in 1658, he had to creep into the chamber of a lying-in woman on

his hands and knees, in order to examine her unperceived. In

France, Clement was employed secretly to attend the mistresses of

Louis XIV in their confinements; to the first he was conducted

blindfold, while the King was concealed among the bed-curtains,

and the face of the lady was enveloped in a network of lace. (E.

Malins, "Midwifery and Midwives," _British Medical Journal_, June

22, 1901; Witkowski, _Histoire des Accouchements_, 1887, pp. 689

et seq.) Even until the Revolution, the examination of women in

France in cases of rape or attempted outrage was left to a jury

of matrons. In old English manuals of midwifery, even in the

early nineteenth century, we still find much insistence on the

demands of modesty. Thus, Dr. John Burns, of Glasgow, in his

_Principles of Midwifery_, states that "some women, from motives

of false delicacy, are averse from examination until the pains

become severe." He adds that "it is usual for the room to be

darkened, and the bed-curtains drawn close, during an

examination." Many old pictures show the accoucheur groping in

the dark, beneath the bed-clothes, to perform operations on women

in childbirth. (A. Kind, "Das Weib als Gebärerin in der Kunst,"

_Geschlecht und Gesellschaft_, Bd. II, Heft 5, p. 203.)

In Iceland, Winkler stated in 1861 that he sometimes slept in the

same room as a whole family; "it is often the custom for ten or

more persons to use the same room for living in and sleeping,

young and old, master and servant, male and female, and from

motives of economy, all the clothes, without exception, are

removed." (G. Winkler, _Island; seine Bewohner_, etc., pp. 107,

110.)

"At Cork," saye Fynes Moryson, in 1617, "I have seen with these

eyes young maids stark naked grinding corn with certain stones to

make cakes thereof." (Moryson, _Itinerary_, Part 3, Book III,