Continent, we find among the Sambos of the Mosquito Shore some curious
customs. They are not of the Indian race, but closely allied with
them in their social habits: when a man commits adultery the injured
husband shoots a beeve, takes a horse, or carries off something of
value, no matter to whom it may belong, and the proprietor must obtain
restitution from the adulterer. Polygamy is practised among them, but
one wife is superior to the rest; they marry very young; the Indians
of the same country have a plurality of wives, but each must have a
separate hut; if the husband makes a present to one, he must make one
of equal value to each of the others, and he must spend his time with
them equally, week by week.
In Venezuela, among the native tribes, marriage is frequently dispensed
with altogether, and cohabitation takes place for a temporary period,
or permanently, as the sentiments of the man may incline. This is the
case even among the Christianized people, but no blame can be attached
to them, poor as they are; for the priests, grasping everywhere, charge
such high fees, that marriage is a privilege of the rich.
The same characteristics prevail all over South America, in Chili,
Peru, Mexico, and among the Araucanian tribes: the men idle, the women
labour; and the national idea is, that one sex is born to command,
the other to obey. The Araucanians carry this principle to excess,
and do not allow their wives to eat until they are satisfied. When a
man desires to have a girl as his wife, he proposes for her to the
father; if the father consent, the girl, without being informed of the
bargain, is sent out on some pretended errand, when she is seized by
her purchaser and carried home to his tent or hut. There a feast is
prepared; their friends assemble; her price is paid in horses, cattle,
or money, and the ceremony is concluded by a debauch. Immorality among
them is rather secret than recognised; in Peru it is affirmed that,
among the native Indians, instances of infidelity between man and wife
are very rare, for where polygamy is sanctioned and regulated by law,
it is by no means inconsistent with chastity.
In New Andalusia the men and women go all but naked, wearing only
slight girdles, and appearing strangers to the sentiment of decency.
The condition of the female sex is that of privation and labour; yet,
though overwhelmed with toil, they appear happier, because naturally
more buoyant of heart than the squaws of North America. Even among the
Indians on the banks of the Xingu, where the lordly husband lies all
day in a hammock, and requires literally to be fed by his faithful
wife, the women sing, dance, and seem to enjoy their lives most
heartily. So, throughout the whole region, humiliation and slavery
form their lot, but their spirit yields willingly to the yoke, which
consequently does not pain them.
The regular prostitute class of South America belongs to the
half-civilized communities, and will be noticed in our reference to
them[63].
OF PROSTITUTION IN THE CITIES OF SOUTH AMERICA.
When we visit the semi-civilized communities of South America, instead
of the barbarian tribes still running wild in its deserts of forest,
the state of morals we discover presents a contrast by no means
favourable to the half-educated States, where a hybrid compromise
seems to have been made between refinement and barbarism. The general
characteristic of South-American society is profligacy. Almost every
city on that continent is demoralized and debauched; Brazil, Mexico,
Peru, Chili, all present features very similar, and differing only
in the inferior details. Professional prostitutes, indiscriminate in
their companionship, form only a small part of the system. Immorality
takes many other forms. This, however, we learn only from the general
terms in which traveller after traveller has described those regions,
especially the cities. Absolute information we have none, except with
respect to the station occupied by women, and their moral demeanour in
society. Statistics are entirely wanting. All writers seem by mutual
consent to have avoided our subject, and left us to conjecture the
extent and character of prostitution in Mexico, Rio Janeiro, Lima, and
the various other cities of South America.
In Mexico, the women of the upper or idle classes are described as
elegant, polished, and fascinating, perfectly easy in society, and
attached above all things to the gaieties of life. Their morals
appear to be similar to those of the female sex in the older cities
of Spain--that is, there are many profligates among them; but a large
number are well-conducted, virtuous women, not very timid in society,
but not immodest. Among the lower classes the average of Spain may
also be adopted--if we may ground an opinion on the vague accounts we
receive from travellers.
In Lima, society is far more profligate. The women are superior to the
men in little more than affection for their children; in other respects
their general conduct is loose. They are devoured with that passion for
intrigue--not amounting in many cases to actual adultery--which has
been a famous trait in the manners of that country in Europe whence
South America has derived all its impress of civilization. One remark
which is true of Lima, applies also to the other cities. The veil,
which in some countries is worn as the guard of virtue, is here the
screen of vice. It is inviolable. The woman so draped may pass her
own husband unrecognised, so that she can play truant as she pleases.
Two or three females of good station often pay visits at the houses
of strange men, without being known. Men sometimes take up with their
own wives in the streets, or at some place of public entertainment,
or on the alameda, or city promenade, without being aware who their
companions are.
The state of manners indicated by frequent allusions to these facts is
far from pure. We have also a few other glimpses into the society of
Mexico and Lima. In the former there were, in 1842, 491 persons--312
men, and 179 women--committed to prison for “prostitution, adultery,
bigamy, sodomy, and incest;” besides 65 men, and 21 women, for “rape
and incontinence.” So far for the capital of Mexico.
In Lima, the chief city of Peru, the number of illegitimate children
annually born is about 860; and of new-born infants exposed and found
dead, 460. Two-thirds of the former, and four-fifths of the latter,
belong to the coloured population--which is, indeed, in a proportionate
majority. A dead child is picked up without any sensation being excited
among the inhabitants of the locality in which it is found. Frequently
it is cast away unburied. Ischudi has seen these little carcasses
dragged about by vultures, in the public streets.
The white creoles are noted for sensuality, as well as a brutal want
of sentiment towards their offspring. The dances in which they indulge
are some of them of indescribable obscenity, and the whole population
is addicted to demoralizing pleasures. In Lima, however, though
delicate modest women are rare, actual adultery is not often committed
by that sex. The men seem to obey the exhortation of Cato, who
encouraged prostitutes, while he abhorred unfaithful wives--“Courage,
my friends; go and see the girls, but do not corrupt the married
women.” Concubinage is more common, or rather, perhaps, more public
than in Europe, and the father is usually very fond and careful of his
natural children. Where marriage is contracted, it is, all over the
Continent, fulfilled at an early age. In Brazil the neglect of this
institution and the profligate intercourse of the sexes have diminished
the population to an immense extent. In Rio Janeiro, however, we are
told that the manners of the people have much improved since they have
become more republican in their manners and ideas. The women there
are shy and retired, but ignorance and awkwardness more than modesty
may be assigned as the cause. While slavery was a public institution,
which the government desired to abolish, the only restriction in the
intercourse of the sexes was among the slaves. Procreation among them
was as far as possible prevented; the women and the men in Janeiro were
locked up at night in separate apartments, and carefully watched during
the day.
In Chili, also, a reform of manners has commenced since the reduction
of the military power, which is proverbially demoralizing. The
higher classes of females have a character for modesty and virtue,
but the men generally indulge themselves in vicious pleasures to a
very considerable extent. It is, perhaps, in Brazil that society
is most corrupt, for there the common decencies of life are, among
the inferior orders, grossly disregarded. Matheson, the traveller,
slept in the same room with a young married couple; girls are sold
as concubines, and children are hired out by their mothers to
prostitution. The youth of that sex bathe, while very young, entirely
naked, and afterwards with scarcely any clothing, before the public
eye, so that altogether the manners of the people are wanting in
decency.
Travellers agree in assigning as one chief cause of this general
demoralization, the profligate conduct of the Roman Catholic clergy;
their lives are, in many cases--and of course there are many exceptions
also--exceedingly scandalous. Numbers of them, bound by their vows to
celibacy, live with concubines, and are not even faithful or constant
to them. Where the priests have such influence, and indulge in such
practices, we may expect to find a low state of morals. That this is
the case in the cities of the South America most travellers agree in
declaring; but unfortunately their notices are only vague generalities,
and we have no positive information as to the extent and character of
prostitution in those cities[64].
OF PROSTITUTION IN THE WEST INDIES.
A very slight notice of the West Indies will suffice, until we arrive
at that division of our inquiry which includes the half-civilized
communities, and the colonial societies related to Great Britain.
Of the barbarous race scarcely a vestige remains, and of the negro
population a general view is all that is required, except with
reference to the prostitution carried on under the encouragement
of the European settlers, which we shall hereafter describe. When
Columbus first visited the beautiful islands of the West Indian
group, he found two classes of people inhabiting them--the savage and
cannibal Caribs, who delighted in war, and preyed upon the weaker and
more effeminate tribes; and the comparatively innocent and simple
communities, whose unwarlike habits rendered them victims to their more
powerful neighbours. The characteristics of these distinct populations
were strongly illustrated in their treatment of women. The mild and
peaceful islanders admitted the female sex to a participation in
the delights and enjoyments of life, allowed their women to mingle
with them in the dance, to inherit power, to wear what ornaments
they fancied; and shared, indeed, with them all the opportunities
of happiness which belonged to their savage condition. Among the
cannibal Caribs, on the other hand, a different fashion prevailed.
The handsomest and youngest of female captives taken in war were
preserved as slaves and companions, while their other prisoners were
devoured. The lot of these exiles, however, was little superior to
that of the Carib women themselves. The nation was low and barbarous,
and accordingly treated its women with harshness and indignity. Proud
of their superior power and courage, the men looked down on the
females as on an inferior sex, whose degradation was natural and just.
Although a wife was awarded as the prize of valour, she was regarded
as property acquired. She was her husband’s slave. All the drudgery of
his habitation fell on her. She bore his implements for war or for the
chase. She carried home the game he had killed; and never sat down to a
meal with him, or even dared to eat in his presence. She approached him
with abject humility, and if she ever complained of ill usage, it was
at the peril of her life. Nevertheless, the child born of this slave
was loved and tended with wonderful care. This description, however,
must apply to the weaker race of women, not to those Amazons described
by Columbus, who, well-trained to war, rivalled in power of muscle and
vigour of limb the bull-stranglers of Sparta.
These, however--the original inhabitants of the West-Indian
Islands--have disappeared, and been succeeded by another race or
compound of races, among which the Negroes only claim our notice at
present. Among the blacks of Antigua, as an example of the rest,
immorality is a characteristic which may be traced to the institution
of slavery. Infanticide is frequently practised by them, especially
since the Emancipation Act was passed. The reason of this circumstance,
which at first seems strange, is very clear. Under the institution
of slavery, negroes were not allowed to marry, or, at least, their
marriages were never held as binding before the law. They therefore
cohabited, and their unions lasted usually only so long as the caprice
of affection, or the heat of a criminal appetite existed. Women,
therefore, continually had five, six, seven, eight, or nine children
by various fathers, and no disgrace was attached to the fact. A new
system was introduced by the abolition of the slave system. The
sentiments of shame and modesty have been cultivated in their minds;
and the idea of female virtue has at least been awakened, so that they
often seek to escape the consequences of an illicit amour by destroying
the offspring.
One of the demoralizing effects of slavery was the encouragement of a
species of concubinage. Rewards, indeed, were held out by some masters
to such of the negroes as lived faithfully with a single partner; but
the prevalence of vice was all but universal. A permanent engagement
between a man and a woman was seldom formed. Two females frequently
lived with one man, and of these one was considered his wife and the
other his mistress.
When the negroes were emancipated, in 1834, many of them were anxious
to be legally married. Numbers had been already united in wedlock by
the missionary preachers; yet, though complete in its character, and
regarded as a sacred tie, this act was not held as binding by the law,
and many of the emancipated negroes, putting away the partners of their
compulsory servitude, took new companions to their homes.
The offence of bigamy was not uncommon among them, and still continues
to be so. It is prohibited under a severe enactment, but many devices
are adopted to elude the law. Concubinage is less openly practised than
formerly, but the tie of marriage is by no means generally respected.
Chastity is indifferently regarded; and where the men do not prize it
in women, women will be at little pains to preserve it for the men.
Women are sometimes married who have been living in concubinage with
several persons, and become the mothers of numerous children.
The condition of the free female negroes is by no means so degraded
as in the original country of the blacks. Women enjoy an independent
existence, and live as they please, though many of them labour. Their
character is not distinguished by morality. Decency was entirely
obliterated from their ideas, and they are only beginning to recover
it. Women who were daily stripped and exposed to receive a whipping
from the hands of men, could not be expected long to retain the sense
of feminine shame; and this process, acting upon one generation
after another, has left its impress on the character of the negro
population. Human nature, also, was outraged by the gross tyranny of
the planters. The intercourse of the sexes was regulated, not with
a view to the morals of the negroes, but to the propagation of the
species. They were coupled like beasts, to increase the number of
slaves on the estate. In consequence of this the degradation of the
negro population was so complete that, after it was emancipated, a
woman considered it more honourable to become the mistress of a white,
than the wife of a black man. In all the islands, indeed, this vile
system was carried on. In St. Lucia, however, the intercourse was
almost unrestrained, and consequently became in a degree promiscuous;
for moral law there was none. The St. Lucia negro, in fact, is, even at
this day, averse to matrimony, and inclined to support concubines, to
none of whom is he faithful, even for an interval of time. Yet he is
thoroughly attached to his children. It has been observed, that if any
improvement in the morality of the island has taken place, it is more
in the tone than in the temper, in the appearance than in the reality.
Infanticide is never practised, or only as a rare and secret crime.
It is prevented, however, not by moral restraint, but by the motherly
feelings of the women--by the absence of reproach on bastardy, and the
facility for rearing children.
In Santa Cruz the same low condition of manners is observable in the
negro population; though in Jamaica the negroes are generally married,
and are, on the whole, faithful to the engagement. This, however, is
the result of the Emancipation Act. Previously to that mighty social
reform, marriage, or a connubial contract of any kind, was rare; and
the intercourse of the sexes was loose, profligate, and lewd. The
men lived either with several concubines at once, or replaced one
by another, as their inclination prompted. When the missionaries
endeavoured to change this state of things, any couples which submitted
to their teaching were sure to be ridiculed and jeered by the servile
and demoralized populace. When slavery was abolished, so far had the
corruption of manners proceeded, that numbers of the women, in the
delirium of their new liberty, abandoned themselves to their vicious
appetites, and became common prostitutes.
The example of Europeans has not by any means displayed to the
negroes any instruction in morality; on the contrary, it has, to a
great extent, encouraged their vices. This we shall show in a future
division of the subject. We therefore leave at present the other
islands which form the plantation colonies of England and Spain: we
shall hereafter visit the native community which has recently made
itself ridiculous by enacting the forms of an empire--we allude to
Hayti, or St. Domingo. The brief notice we have given is intended to
apply to the rude black population, but not in respect of its relation
to the white communities[65].
OF PROSTITUTION IN JAVA.
In the island of Java, which is perhaps the most fertile and beautiful
country in the world, a curious system of manners now prevails.
Hindoos have been succeeded by Mohammedans, and these by Dutch: each
of the conquering races has impressed some characteristic trait on the
population, and, unfortunately, the stamp of vice is more easily set
than any other. The character and condition of the female sex in Java
indicate the whole state of manners there. The men are somewhat cold
towards the women, a fact which some learned Theban has ascribed to
their feeding more on vegetable than on animal substances, but they are
neither cruel nor negligent towards them. The institution of marriage
is universally known, if not universally practised or generally
respected. The lot of women may be described as peculiarly fortunate;
in general they are not ill-used at all, and when, as among some of
the more opulent, they are secluded, they are rather withdrawn from
the indiscriminate gaze of the people, than shut up in lonely secrecy,
for they are by no means watched with that exaggerated jealousy which
in some parts of the East renders the husband a continual spy on the
actions of his wife. Though the man pays a price for his bride, he does
not therefore disdain or abuse her.
The condition of the sex in Java is, indeed, an exception to the
habitual custom of Asiatics. The women eat with the men, associate with
them in all the offices and pleasures of life, and live on terms of
mutual equality.
Many queens have, in different States, occupied the throne. The sex is
nowhere in the island, as a rule, treated with coarseness, violence,
or neglect. They are industrious, and hard-working, but they labour
more through desire of praise than through fear of chastisement, and
are admitted to the performance of many honourable tasks. Among the
wealthier classes men sometimes act tyrannically in their households;
but this must be taken as the characteristic not of the race, but of
individuals. Those who seclude their wives do so only from the common
eye; English gentlemen have often been introduced into the most private
chambers of the harem, while the wives and daughters of the greatest
chiefs have appeared at the entertainments given by the European
residents in Batavia, Sumarang, and other cities, where they conduct
themselves usually with modesty and good grace.
Polygamy and concubinage are tolerated, that is, they are practised
among the nobility of Java, who do not allow public opinion to
interfere with the gratification of their desires; both of these
customs are looked upon, however, rather as vicious luxuries, than as
established social institutions; yet, however limited their extent,
they never fail to degrade the position and to vitiate the character
of the female sex. Some circumstances in the feelings of the people
prevent either practice from being generally adopted, and the evil
is thus, in its moral influence, mitigated. The first wife is always
mistress of the household, and the others are little more than her
handmaids, who contribute to her husband’s gratification, but never
share his rank or his wealth. No man of station will give his daughter
as a second or third wife, unless to a chief of far higher nobility
than himself; the inferior wives or concubines are therefore of an
inferior class. Thus the artificial distinctions of classes vitiate
the public morals, for a woman considers it dishonourable, not to
prostitute herself, but to prostitute herself to a poor man of humble
birth.
When we say that polygamy and concubinage are not general in Java, the
reader must by no means infer a high state of manners to exist there.
On the contrary, Java is the most immoral country in insular Asia.
The woman who would be ashamed to become the second wife of a chief
might not be ashamed to commit adultery with him; in general terms,
both sexes are extremely profligate and depraved, though the poets
and historians of the island boast of chastity as the distinguishing
ornament of their women; because a married female shrieks when a
strange man attempts to kiss her before her attendants and a large
mixed company, they hold up their sex in Java as the standard of
feminine purity and virtue.
In most islands of the Indian Archipelago, divorces are not easy to be
obtained; but in Java the total separation of married people may be
procured with the utmost freedom and facility. It is a privilege in
which the women indulge themselves to a most wanton degree, and often
so much as to fall little short of prostitution. A wife may turn away
her husband by paying him a certain sum of money; he is not, indeed,
absolutely bound to accept this, but usually does so, in conformity
with the established opinion of society, that it is disreputable to
live with a woman on such terms. Women often change their partners
three or four times before they are thirty years of age; some have been
seen boasting of a twelfth husband. In Java the means of subsistence
abound, and are easy to be procured as well by females as by men;
one sex is, therefore, in a great measure, independent of the other;
women find no difficulty in living without husbands. They are not,
consequently, forced to remain in a state of bondage through fear of
being drifted destitute upon the world; but, unfortunately for the
theories of our new female reformers, the sex in Java, though thus
enfranchised, is proverbially dissolute and libertine.