emperors. The severity of Constantine enacted that a man guilty of
rape should die, whether he accomplished his purpose by violence, or
by gentle and gradual seduction. The virgin who confessed her consent,
instead of procuring a mitigation of this sentence, exposed herself
to share the penalty. Slaves who were accomplices in the crime of
procuring young women for prostitution, were punished by being burnt,
or having boiling metal poured down their throats. The consequence of
such a savage law was, that it could not be generally applied; nor was
it enforced by the example of the emperor, who, once rigidly strict,
turned dissolute and luxurious towards the close of his reign.
It will be seen, from the information here collected, that no actual
knowledge exists of the precise extent of the prostitute system in
Rome. Facts, and some of these extremely curious, have been preserved
in connection with it; but the statistics of the question are wholly
lost, if, indeed, they ever existed. On this account, it appeared
possible to do no more than bring those facts together, and, throwing
them into a general sketch of the morality prevailing at different
periods in the social history of that state, to draw thence an idea
of the truth. Under the comparatively virtuous Republic, a line could
certainly be drawn between the profligate and the moral classes of the
community. Under some of the emperors such a distinction was wholly
impossible. The vulgar prostitute was commonly met at the tables of the
rich, and the palace itself was no more than an imperial brothel. A few
notes on the history of the empire will justify these remarks.
In the early period of the decline, the licentious amours of Faustina
were excused, even encouraged, by her husband, and the nobles paid
homage in the temples before the image of an adultress. In the eyes
of Commodus virtue was criminal, since it implied a reflection upon
his profligacy. Dissolving his frame in lust amid 300 concubines and
boys, he violated by force the few modest women remaining near his
court. Julia, the wife of Severus, though flattered in life and death
by public writers, was no better than a harlot. We have already noticed
the pleasures of Elagabalus, who committed rape upon a vestal virgin,
and condescended to the most bestial vice. The nobles readily followed
his example, and the people were easily led into the fashion. Maximin
drowned every coy maiden who refused his embraces. In process of time,
the most degrading features of Asiatic profligacy were introduced
into Rome, and eunuchs crowded the palaces of the emperor and his
nobles. History alludes to no more vulgar prostitute than the Empress
Theodora, who played comedies before the people of Constantinople,
and prostituted her person--of unparalleled beauty as it was--night
after night to a promiscuous crowd of citizens and strangers, of every
rank and description. She exhibited herself naked in the theatre. Her
sympathy for the prostitute class may be indicated by almost the only
virtuous action recorded of her;--inducing her husband Justinian to
found a monastery on the shores of the Bosphorus, where 500 miserable
women, collected from the streets and brothels, were offered a refuge.
When we remember the usual relative proportion of objects relieved by
charity, to the numbers from which they are selected, this indicates a
considerable trade in prostitution then carried on in Constantinople.
When, however, such a social system prevailed, no inquiry could fix the
professional class of harlots, since moral women, if any existed, were
certainly exceptions.
It is always necessary, while inquiring into the morality of any
people, to inquire into the extent to which the practice of procuring
abortion was carried, and how it was viewed. Montesquieu justly
observes, that it is by no means unnatural, though it may be criminal,
for a prostitute, should she by chance conceive a child, to seek to
be relieved from the burden. She has no means of support except one
which she cannot possibly follow and at the same time fulfil the
duties of a mother. These considerations, perhaps, had some weight
with the legislators of Rome, as well as those reasons of political
prudence which in various ancient states recognised infanticide. That
it was practised to some extent there, is shown by frequent allusions
in various works. It has been asserted, indeed, that the custom of
procuring abortion prevailed to such an extent, that, combined with
celibacy, it materially affected the population of the state, but this
appears a false view. There are no accounts to support such an idea.
It is not known at what particular time a law was introduced against
it. Certainly it was held in a different light than it is by our
religion, and our civilization. Plato’s republic permits it. Aristotle
also allows it to be practised under certain circumstances, but only
before the child is quick in the womb. So, also, among the Romans, it
seems long to have been unrestrained by law, though it is impossible
to believe that the natural instincts of women would not deter them,
except in desperate situations, from such unnatural offences.
Such is the view of the prostitute system, with a sketch of general
morality, which the facts preserved by history enable us to offer. It
appears from these facts, that, during the more flourishing period of
the Roman state, the prostitutes formed a class, to which the principal
immorality of the female society was confined, while in the later
or imperial age profligacy ran loose among the people, so that the
distinction between the regular harlot and the unrecognised prostitute
was all but lost. Chastity, under the Republic, was a peculiar Roman
virtue, and the prostitutes were usually foreigners, while we do not
find that they ever mixed with reputable women who had characters to
lose[39].
OF PROSTITUTION AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS.
We leave the countries of classical antiquity and arrive at the
Anglo-Saxons of our own history, in whom the reader will feel a
peculiar interest. Unfortunately, our usual observations with reference
to ancient times, apply to them also. Extremely imperfect records exist
of their manners, laws, and institutions. The learned and industrious
Sharon Turner has collected most of the facts known, yet neither the
word prostitution, nor any term analogous to it, is to be found in his
work. In the Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ, we find laws and regulations in
reference to the chastity of the women, but nothing which indicates
the existence of a class professionally addicted to prostitution.
Nevertheless, it is improbable that such a class was utterly unknown,
for the modern historians, as well as the old chroniclers, who have
described the era, allude repeatedly to the licentious manners of the
period. Gluttoning and deep drinking may, however, have excused the
epithet, without supposing any prevalence of immorality.
Sharon Turner refers us to the Maories of New Zealand, for a parallel
to the manners and condition of Great Britain, when first invaded by
the Romans. As far as profligacy goes, the comparison appears correct.
Among the Britons, however, prevailed the extraordinary and pernicious
institution of small societies of ten or twelve men, with a community
of women among them. Ceremonies of marriage, indeed, took place, but
for no other purpose than to provide that each woman’s husband should
maintain all her children, whoever their fathers might be. In some of
their religious ceremonies women officiated naked, and in all their
modes of life a coarse licentiousness obtained.
The Romans introduced a more refined luxury, and manners became
less coarse, though no less profligate. The Saxons, however, then
transported themselves to these islands from the Cymbric Peninsula, and
the civilization of the country passed through a complete revolution.
In their original country they had displayed a system of manners
peculiar to themselves, and the other wild races inhabiting the mighty
woods of Germany. Their laws against adultery were of the most savage
character. When a woman was guilty of it, she was compelled to hang
herself, her body was burned, and the execution of the adulterer took
place over the pile of her ashes. Among some communities the punishment
was still more severe, and infinitely more barbarous. The guilty
creature was whipped from village to village by a number of women, who
tore off her garments to the waist, and pierced her with their knives.
Company after company of them pursued her until she sank under the
shame, torture, and loss of blood. Chastity, indeed, was very generally
regarded among these rude people, but their ideas were very foreign
from ours. The degrees of consanguinity within which marriage was
prohibited were extremely narrow, a son being permitted to marry his
father’s widow, provided she was not his own mother.
In their marriage customs the Anglo-Saxons displayed considerable
regard for the female sex, although the wife was taken rather as the
property than as the companion of the husband. The original laws
of Ethelbert, indeed, as we have said, made the transaction wholly
one of purchase; but in the reign of Edmund a more refined code was
established. The betrothal usually took place some time before the
actual ceremony. This was held as a sacred tie, the high-priest being
at the marriage to consecrate it, and pray for a blessing on the wedded
pair[40].
The manners of the Anglo-Saxons, after their settlement in England,
underwent considerable improvement. They became, indeed, to a degree
civilized. Their women were no longer the savages of Germany. They
occupied a position wholly different from that of their sex among
the more polished and luxurious nations of the East. It was, we may
say, similar to that which they at present fill among us. They were
recognised as members of the body politic, could bequeath and inherit
property, could appeal to the law against any man; they possessed, in
a word, the rights, the duties, and the public relations of citizens.
Of course, in all these particulars, their position was modified by
the natural restraints imposed on their sex. This refers to the more
improved period of their civilization. In the laws of Ethelbert a man
was permitted to buy a wife, provided he did it openly. By Edmund’s
time, however, the practice was changed, and the woman’s consent,
as well as that of her friends, was necessary. The man was also
pledged before the law to support and respect her. She carried public
protection into her new home. Considerable honour, consequence, and
independence were there pre-enjoyed by the female sex. Nevertheless
there continued long to be in the transaction much of a business
character, and the consent of the woman was frequently no more than
submission to the terms of a bargain struck between her lover and her
parents. By some husbands, indeed, a wife seems to have been considered
as little more than a property. We find adultery, for instance, allowed
to be compounded. “If a freeman cohabit with the wife of a freeman he
must pay the fine, and obtain another woman with his own money, and
lead her to the other.” In other words, when he has destroyed the
value of one wife, he must buy a fresh one for the injured husband.
This would seem to indicate that women were to be had for money.
Adultery, indeed, was at all times an affair of payments. It was
punished only by various fines, varying according to the rank of the
woman. The chastity of the high noble’s wife was valued at six pounds,
that of a churl’s attendant at six shillings.
In the Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ we find many regulations laid down
respecting rape and fornication, which imply the occasional practice
of those crimes. From the tone of the enactments on the subject, it
seems impossible reasonably to doubt that a class of women existed who
prostituted themselves for gain or pleasure to the other sex. None
such, it is true, is directly indicated. We find, however, a rule of
the venerable Bede, that any “slave woman” or “servile” turning her
eyes immodestly on men, is to be severely chided. Blount also, quoted
in Brand’s “Popular Antiquities,” with the historian Henry, describes
the punishment of the cucking stool, as inflicted by the Anglo-Saxons,
both in Germany and in England, upon scolds, disorderly women, and
strumpets, who in the more barbarous society on the Continent were
suffocated in marshes. In Cornwall harlots were long punished in the
ludicrous and degrading manner described by Brand.
In the absence of any ground upon which to stand, we cannot describe a
particular class among the Anglo-Saxons as addicted to prostitution,
but from the whole colour of their civilization, from the rudest to
the most refined period, it is evident the practice was followed, in a
greater or less degree[41].
OF PROSTITUTION AMONG THE BARBAROUS NATIONS.
INTRODUCTION.
In surveying the social aspects of the barbarian world, we discover
many striking phenomena. The relations of the sexes, among uneducated
races, appear modified by every circumstance of their position; but
everywhere the natural ascendancy of the strong over the weak is
displayed. A few savage communities allow women a position nearly
level with that of the men; but wherever this is the case, a degree of
civilization has been attained.
If we divide mankind into two classes--the civilized and the
savage--forming an ideal of both extremes, we shall not find one tribe
or community to occupy either pole of our supposed sphere. No one
requires to be told that every part of the human race is still below
the perfect development of its good attributes; but the observation
is equally true, though less generally accepted, that every family of
creatures showing our nature has advanced beyond the utterly savage
state. When we find men wandering not only unclothed, but unhoused,
over the earth, and following only their animal propensities, we may
regard them as wholly untaught. At present no such tribe is known.
Every human being that has come under our notice has progressed beyond
the simple gratification of his appetites. The love of ornament and the
practice of exchange have raised him one step in the scale.
The Africans, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the ruder tribes
of the Pacific Isles, the Dyaks of Borneo, and the natives of Sumatra
and Celebes, with the Indians of North and South America, may be
included under the appellation _barbarous_. They vary, however, in the
characteristics of their barbarism, as the nations of Europe vary in
the characteristics of their civilization. They are even divided into
classes. (1) The hunters, with little property in the soil, precarious
means of existence, and migratory habits; the fishers, who are only the
hunters of the sea; (2) the pastoral tribes, with property in herds
and flocks, nomade, and therefore little property in the soil; (3) the
agricultural tribes, permanently or temporarily fixed to localities,
whose means of life are less precarious, and whose habits are more
regular than those of the two former. The third is the most educated,
the second the most innocent, the first the most simple state. It is
among the shepherds that women enjoy most consideration, and that
morality is highest. The hunters are more savage, and the tillers of
the earth more sensual.
In judging the condition of the female sex, it is always necessary to
hold in view the general state of manners. When we inquire how husbands
behave to their wives, and how parents treat their daughters, we must
ask also how they live themselves. Where the male sex is degraded the
female will be so. On the other hand, the refinement of any people may
be estimated by the condition of its women. The islanders of Celebes
are among the most elevated of barbarian races, and the sexes are
nearly on an equality. The hordes of Western Africa are the most gross
and ferocious of savages, and their women are treated as reptiles. The
Indians of North America offer, apparently, an exception to this rule,
for their lofty, proud, and polished warriors behave contemptuously to
the squaws in their wigwam, who crouch to the earth while their lords
stand haughtily before the most powerful conquerors. But the Choctaws
and the Cherokees are in reality as far removed from true civilization
as the dwellers in New Zealand. The amenities and not the arts of life
civilize men. Wherever in the Indian village the gentler influences of
humanity prevail, the feebler sex is treated with respect and affection.
The points of contrast between barbarian and civilized races display
themselves strongly in relation to the condition of the female sex.
Throughout the savage portions of Africa one system of manners
prevails. The men occupy the lowest stage of the social scale. They
are neither hunters, fishers, shepherds, nor tillers of the soil; but
mix up several occupations, though none of an elevating character.
Some raise a few materials of food; others collect ivory in the
woods; others live on the profits of the slave-trade; but the greater
number subsist on the refuse of what they gain in the service of
their petty kings. They have been sophisticated from the simplicity
of savages without acquiring one grace from civilization. Subject to
the gross caprice of princes more miserable than themselves, they
have remained beyond the reach of every humanizing influence, and,
as a natural consequence, their women are debased. Polygamy produces
its worst results. The wife is an object of barter; a slave, whose
labour assists to support her owner. In some parts diligence is more
valued than chastity. In others the husband makes a profit from his
wife’s prostitution. The slave trade has assisted largely towards
this melancholy state of manners. The finer sentiments of humanity
are altogether lost, and the contempt for life, as well as for all
that is amiable or pure, has reduced men far below the level of the
brute creation. We speak literally in saying that a nobler, happier
spectacle is presented among the antelope and elephant herds than among
the swarms of men and women corrupting in Africa. In the few parts
where the male sex has risen from this debasement, the female has been
equally improved. The barbarous Edeeyahs offer an example.
The savages of Australia differ in many respects from those of Western
Africa. They are even less educated, but they are also less ferocious;
their women are their abject servitors, but there is more humanity in
their treatment. They have scarcely approached so near to the forms
of regular society, as to systematize the intercourse of the sexes.
Nevertheless, among some tribes we not only find the institution of
marriage respected, but wives guarded with Turkish jealousy. Among a
people which does not dwell in regular habitations, or even lodge in
roomy tents, it is scarcely possible to imagine the sanctity of a man’s
harem; but it is true, notwithstanding, that a similar seclusion is
enforced. The Australian woman, in the desert and under the open sky,
is hedged round by her husband’s jealousy as securely as the ancient
German was in her unwalled shelter of thatch.
It is seldom, however, that among barbarous races we find the sentiment
of chastity in its abstract sense. Women are generally treated as
though their inclinations were licentious, and in this consists one
great line of distinction between civilization and barbarism. With the
one, moral influence--with the other, material force, is employed as
the guardian of female honour. The result is important to be noticed.
Women are depraved by the rude and gross means devised to keep them
virtuous. Where the moral sentiment is feebly developed, guilt is
created by the efforts made to prevent it. The wife perpetually
watched, as though her heart were full of adultery, becomes an
adulteress. The young girl continually guarded, with the avowed object
of compelling her to be chaste, loses insensibly any natural feeling
she may have possessed, and covets the opportunity to sin.
In the South Sea Islands this truth is illustrated; in New Zealand
it is still more strongly proved. It is taken for granted that a
woman will prostitute herself if she can. The state of morality is
consequently so low that it is difficult for parents to preserve
a daughter’s virtue until she is given in marriage. To prevent
her holding _vicious_ intercourse she is forbidden to hold _any_
intercourse with the opposite sex.
Another characteristic of civilized races is the separation of the
vicious from the moral classes; they systematize the offences against
society. Every class of vile persons becomes, as it were, an isolated
community; the prostitute is segregated from the rest of her sex. In
some barbarian states, as in Dahomey, the same division is effected;
but the kings of that country have sought to mimic the forms of
educated communities. The professional is distinguished from the
habitual prostitute only by her open assumption of the title; but the
immorality of the female sex in Dahomey is far from being represented
by the order of confessed harlots.
The inhabitants of some islands, and the shores of bays and roadsteads,
have discovered that in prostituting their women to the crews of
trading ships they have a readier means of subsistence than was
offered by their former industry. This has produced a frightful system
of vicious commerce, which still prevails to a great extent in the
Pacific, as well as in New Zealand and the ports of Africa. It is
for Europeans to repair the evil created by the incontinence of their
predecessors. Many captains of vessels have already effected much good
by forbidding women to come on board.
In proportion as nations approach the higher stages of civilization
does the respect for human life increase. Infanticide is practised with
the least remorse by the most savage tribes. Among those communities
with whom the means of existence are precarious this crime is most
common. Wherever barbarians have been induced to labour, and secured
in the enjoyment of their earnings, the natural feelings of the breast
have revived; and mothers who have slain six infants cherish the
seventh as a sacred possession. Missionary enterprise has produced
much good in this respect; while the beneficent rule of our Indian
government has bestowed incalculable blessings on the people of the
East, among whom the system of infanticide is daily becoming rarer, and
the condition of women more elevated.
The same may be remarked of that unnatural practice upon which, as
indeed on all kindred subjects, writers are reluctant to touch--that,
we mean, of destroying the unborn fruits of union. The savage regards
it as an act rather meritorious for its ingenuity than abominable
for its unnatural character. The cause that encourages infanticide
encourages this, which, indeed, is the less horrible crime. The woman
is less reluctant to extinguish the vitality of a being which has
become to her dear only in anticipation, than to quench a life which
has once been embodied before her eyes, and warmed in her bosom. The
operation, so dangerous to females in civilized communities, is, like
childbirth, far easier among savages. The native of the Bornean woods,
without any of the delicacy engendered by luxury, may one moment be
without a pang giving birth to an infant, and the next be washing it
in a neighbouring brook. The Malayan lady, bred in a city in indolence
and comfort, suffers agony under which she sometimes perishes before
her offspring has breathed. So it is with the practice of destroying
the unborn child. Civilization lessens in all creatures their means of
independent life, and their powers of endurance; but it also enables
them to discover or compound the elements by which these artificial
ills may be remedied.