brothers, a man may, with the woman’s consent, bring home another, who
enjoys all the marital rights, and is called an associated husband.
In fact, the first may, subject to his wife’s pleasure, bring home as
many strangers as he pleases, and the children inherit their property
equally. It is rare, however, to meet one of these associated husbands
among the Kandians of higher and purer caste, though two or more
brothers continually marry the same woman. This revolting custom is
now confined to the province of Kandy, though some writers assert
that it was formerly prevalent throughout the maritime districts.
In these, however, monogamy is at present practised, except by the
Mohammedans, who are polygamists. Statements to the contrary have been
laid before us; but Sirr positively asserts that he never saw a Kandian
or Singhalese who had acknowledged himself to have more than a single
wife. The Muslims, though long settled in the island, preserve their
peculiar characteristics, their religion, habits, and manners, which
they have not communicated to the rest of the population.
There are two kinds of marriage in Kandy, the one called “Bema,” the
other “Deega.” In the first of these the husband goes to live at his
wife’s residence, and the woman shares with her brothers the family
inheritance. He, however, who is married after this fashion, enjoys
little respect from his bride’s relations; and if he gives offence to
her father, or the head of the household, may be at once ejected from
the abode. In reference to this precarious and doubtful lodgement there
is an ancient proverb still popular in Kandy. It says that a man wedded
according to the Bema process should only take to his bride’s dwelling
four articles of property--a pair of sandals to protect his feet, a
palm-leaf to shield his head from the fiery rays of the sun, a walking
staff to support him if he be sick, and a lantern to illuminate his
path should he chance to be ejected during darkness. He may thus be
prepared to depart at any hour of the day or night.
Deega, the other kind of marriage, is that in which the wife passes
from underneath the parental roof to dwell in her husband’s own house.
In this case she relinquishes all claim to a share in her family
inheritance, but acquires a contingent right to some of her husband’s
property. The man’s authority is, under this form of contract, far
greater than under that of Bema. He cannot be divorced without his own
consent, while, in the other case, separation, as we have seen, is a
summary process, entirely depending on the caprice of the woman or her
family. In a country where the female population is considerably less
numerous than the male, and where women generally enjoy much freedom,
a certain degree of indulgence will always be granted to the fickle
quality in their character. In Ceylon this liberty in the one sex
involves a certain kind of slavery in the other. Women frequently seek
for divorces upon the most frivolous and trifling pretexts, and as
these are too easily attainable by the simple return of the marriage
gifts, they continually occur. Should a child be born within nine
months from the day of the final separation, the husband is bound to
maintain it for the first three years of its life, after which it is
considered sufficiently old to be taken from its mother. If, however,
while under the marriage pledge, the woman defiles herself by adultery,
the husband, if with his own eyes he was the witness of her infidelity,
might with his own hands, under the native law, take away the life of
her paramour. Notwithstanding this terrible privilege, it is asserted
with consistency by many authorities that, in all parts of Ceylon,
from the highest to the lowest caste, the want of conjugal faith in
the married, and chastity in the unmarried people, is frightful to
consider. When a man puts away his wife for adulterous intrigue, he may
disinherit her and the whole of her offspring, notwithstanding that
he may feel and acknowledge them all to be his own children. When,
however, he seeks a divorce from caprice, he renounces all claim to
his wife’s inheritance or actual property, and must divide with her
whatever may have been jointly accumulated during the period of their
cohabitation. The men of Ceylon do not always, however, exercise their
privileges. They are generally very indulgent husbands. Many of them,
indeed, are uxorious to an offensive extreme, and forgive offences
which, by most persons, are held unpardonable. A short time since a
Kandian applied to the British judicial authorities to compel the
return to him and his children of an unfaithful wife, who had deserted
her home for that of a paramour. The husband pleaded his love for her,
implored her for her children’s sake to come back, and promised to
forgive her offence; but she turned away from him, and coolly asked the
judge if he could force her to return. He answered that unfortunately
he could not, but advised her to return to the home of her lawful
partner, who was ready to forgive and embrace her. She disregarded
equally the entreaties of the one and the exhortation of the other,
and returned to her paramour, whom she shortly afterwards deserted for
another.
The numerous instances of this kind which happen in the island have
encouraged a swarm of satirical effusions upon the faithlessness of the
female sex; but if the women were also poets, they might echo every
note of the song. In illustration of the estimate formed of them, we
may quote a few lines translated from the original by Sirr. They apply
to the fraudulent disposition of women, and have become proverbial
among the people.
“I’ve seen the adumbra tree in flower, white plumage on the crow,
And fishes’ footsteps on the deep have traced through ebb and flow.
If man it is who thus asserts, his words you may believe;
But all that woman says distrust--she speaks but to deceive.”
The adumbra is a species of fig-tree, and the natives assert that no
mortal has ever seen its bloom.
Under the native kings the Singhalese were forbidden to contract
marriage with any one of nearer affinity than the second cousin; such
an union was incestuous, and severely punished. Under the English
government, however, many of these old restrictions have been modified.
Among the Christian population, on the other hand--Catholic as well
as Protestant--many traces of their old idolatry are still distinctly
visible in the ceremony of marriage.
The Buddhist law allows to every man, whatever his grade, only one
wife; but the ancient Kandian princes, of course, broke this law and
took as many wives or concubines as they pleased.
We have alluded to the numerical difference between the sexes. The
population of Ceylon is about 1,500,000, and the males exceed the
females by nearly a tenth. In 1814 it was 476,000; there were 20,000
more males than females. In 1835 there was a population of 646,000
males, and 584,000 females. At both these periods the disparity
was greatest in the poorest places. In the fishing villages, where
wholesome food abounded, there were more females than males. The same
circumstance is true at the present day. Some writers attribute this
to a gracious provision of Nature, which checks the increase of the
people; but Nature makes no provision against unnatural things, and
starvation is a monstrous thing in a fertile country. We may with more
safety assign as a cause the open or secret infanticide, which, under
the old laws, was common. Female children, except the first born, born
under a malignant star, were sure to be sacrificed. It was hardly
considered an offence; but being, under the British rule, denounced as
murder, has been gradually abolished. The easier means of life, which
in Ceylon and throughout the rest of our Asiatic dominions are afforded
to the people under English sway, take away the incentive of poverty to
crime. The population has enormously increased, an unfailing sign of
good government, if misery does not increase with it.
The social position of the Singhalese women is not so degraded as in
many other parts of the East; the poor labouring hard, but as partners
rather than as slaves. This superior condition does not, unhappily,
elevate their moral character, for it is unaccompanied by other
essential circumstances. Profligacy, we have said, is widely prevalent
in Ceylon; yet prostitution, at least of the avowed and public kind,
is not so. Under the Kandian dynasty it was peremptorily forbidden;
a common harlot had her hair and ears cut off and was whipped naked.
If, however, we accept the general definition of the word prostitution
as any obscene traffic in a woman’s person, we shall find much of it
clandestinely practised. The women are skilful in procuring abortion,
and thus rid themselves of the consequences which follow their
intrigues. Of course, in the sea-port towns prostitution exists, but we
have no account of it. It is fair, however, to notice the opinions of
Sir Emerson Tennent, that the morals of the people in these and in all
other parts of the islands are rapidly improving, and that marriage is
_becoming_ a more sacred tie[74].
OF PROSTITUTION IN CHINA.
In the immense empire of China, the civilization of which has been cast
in a mould fashioned by despotism, a general uniformity of manners is
prevalent. Singular as many of its customs are, they vary very little
in the different provinces, for although the population be composed of
a mixture of races, the iron discipline of the government forces all
to bend to one universal fashion. The differences which are remarked
between the practice of the people in one district, and those of
another, spring only from the nature of circumstances. It is more easy,
therefore, to take an outline view of this vast empire, than it is to
sketch many smaller countries, where the uniformity of manners is not
so absolute.
China affords a wide and interesting field for our inquiry. Were our
information complete, there is perhaps no state in the world with
reference to which so curious an account might be written as China,
with its prostitution system. Unfortunately, however, the negligence
or prudery of travellers has allowed the subject to be passed over. We
know that a remarkable system of this kind does exist, that prostitutes
abound in the cities of the Celestial Empire, and that they form a
distinct order; we know something of the classes from which they are
taken, how they are procured, in what their education consists, where
and in what manner they live, and how and by whom they are encouraged.
But this information is to be derived, not from any full account by an
intelligent and observing inquirer, but from isolated facts scattered
through a hundred books which require to be connected, and then only
form a rough and incomplete view of the subject. Statistics we have
positively none, though ample opportunities must be afforded travellers
for arriving at something near the truth in such cities as Canton.
However, from what knowledge we possess it is evident the social
economy of the Chinese with respect to prostitution presents clear
points of analogy with our own.
In conformity with the plan of this inquiry, we proceed first to
ascertain the general condition of the female sex in China. Abundant
information has been supplied us on this subject, as well by the
written laws, and by the literature of the country, as by the
travellers who have visited and described it.
As in all Asiatic, indeed in all barbarous, countries, women in China
are counted inferior to men. The high example of Confucius taught
the people--though their own character inclined them before, and was
reflected from him--that the female sex was created for the convenience
of the male. The great philosopher spoke of women and slaves as
belonging to the same class, and complained that they were equally
difficult to govern. That ten daughters are not equal in value to one
son is a proverb which strongly expresses the Chinese sentiment upon
this point, and the whole of their manners is pervaded by the same
spirit. Feminine virtue, indeed, is severely guarded by the law, but
not for its own sake. The well-being of the state, and the interest of
the male sex, are sought to be protected by the rigorous enactments on
the subject of chastity; but the morality, like the charity of that
nation, is contained principally in its codes, essays, and poems, for
in practice they are among the most demoralised on the earth.
The spirit of the Salic law might naturally be looked for in the
political code of such a state. It is so. The throne can be occupied
only by a man. An illegitimate son is held in more respect than a
legitimate daughter. The constitution provides that if the principal
wife fail to bear male children, the son of the next shall succeed,
and if she be barren also, of the next, and so on, according to their
seniority, the son of each has a contingent claim to the sovereignty.
Thus in the most important department of their public economy the
national sentiment is manifested. We may now examine the laws which
regulate the intercourse of the sexes, and then inquire into the actual
state of manners. It will be useful to remember the truth, which has
already been stated, that no language is so full of moral axioms
and honourable sentiments as the Chinese, while no nation is more
flagitious in its practice.
The government of China, styled paternal because it rules with the rod,
regulates the minutest actions of a man’s career. He is governed in
everything--in the temple, in the street, at his own table, in all the
relations of life. The law of marriage, for instance, is full, rigid,
and explicit. The young persons about to be wedded know little or
nothing of the transaction.
Parental authority is supreme, and alliances are contracted in which
the man and wife do not see each others’ faces until they occupy the
same habitation and are mutually pledged for life. Match-making in
China is a profession followed by old women, who earn what we may
term a commission upon the sales they effect. When a union between
two families is intended, its particulars must be fully explained on
either side, so that no deceit shall be practised. The engagement is
then drawn and the amount of presents determined, for in all countries
where women hold this position, marriage is more or less a mercantile
transaction. When once the contract is made, it is irrevocable. If the
friends of the girl repent and desire to break the match, the man among
them who had authority to give her away is liable to receive fifty
strokes of the bamboo, and the marriage must proceed. Whatever other
engagements have been entered into are null and punishable, and the
original bridegroom has in all cases a decisive claim. If he, on the
other hand, or the friend who represents and controls him, desire to
dissolve the compact, giving a marriage present to another woman, he is
chastised with fifty blows, and compelled to fulfil the terms of his
first engagement, while his second favourite is at liberty to marry as
she pleases. If either of the parties is incontinent after the ceremony
of betrothal, the crime is considered as adultery, and so punished.
But if any deceit be practised, and either family represent the person
about to marry under a false description, they become liable to severe
penalties, and on the part of the man most strictly.
The husband, finding that a girl had been palmed off on him by fraud,
is permitted to release himself from the tie. Such incidents,
nevertheless, do occasionally occur. One of rather an amusing nature
is alluded to by several writers. A young man who had been promised in
marriage the youngest daughter of a large family was startled when,
after the ceremony was complete, he unveiled his bride, to find the
eldest sister, very ugly and deeply pitted with the small pox. The law
would have allowed him to escape from such an union, but he submitted,
and soon afterwards consoled himself with a handsome concubine.
Although the girl, when once betrothed, is absolutely bound to the
husband selected for her, he dare not, under pain of the bastinado,
force her away before the specified time. On the other hand, her
friends must not, under similar penalties, detain her after that time.
Thus the law regulates the whole transaction, and the parents dispose
as they will of their children. Occasionally, however, a young man,
not yet emancipated from paternal authority, contracts a marriage
according to his own inclination, and if the rites have actually been
performed, it cannot be dissolved; but if he be only betrothed, and his
parents have in the meanwhile agreed upon an alliance for him, he must
relinquish his own design and obey their choice.
Polygamy is allowed in China, but under certain regulations. The first
wife is usually chosen from a family equal in rank and riches to that
of the husband, and is affianced with as much splendour and ceremony
as the parties can afford. She acquires all the rights which belong
to the chief wife in any Asiatic country. The man may then take as
many as he pleases, who are inferior in rank to the first, but equal
to each other. The term inferior wife is more applicable than that of
concubine, as there is a form of espousal, and their children have a
contingent claim to the inheritance. The practice, however, brings no
honour, if it brings no positive shame, though now sanctioned by long
habit. Originally it appears to have been condemned by the stricter
moralists, and it has been observed that the Chinese term to describe
this kind of companion is, curiously enough, compounded of the words
_crime_ and _woman_. It is a derogatory position, and such as only the
poor and humble will consent to occupy. One of the national sayings,
and the feeling with many of the women, is, that it is more honourable
to be a poor man’s wife than the concubine of an emperor. A man cannot,
under the penalty of a hundred blows, degrade his first wife to this
position, or raise an inferior wife to hers--no such act is valid
before the law.
None but the rich can afford, and none but the loose and luxurious will
practise, polygamy except when the first wife fails to bear a son.
Unless some such reason exists, the opinion of moralists is against it.
Men with too many wives lose the Emperor’s confidence, since he accuses
them of being absorbed in domestic concerns. In this case it is usual
to take an inferior wife, who is purchased from the lower ranks for
a sum of money, that an heir may be born to the house. The situation
of these poor creatures is aggravated or softened according to the
disposition of their chief, for they are virtually her servants, and
are not allowed even to eat in her presence. They receive no elevation
by her decease, but are for ever the mere slaves of their master’s
lust. At the same time their inferior position, and therefore inferior
consequence, gains them some agreeable privileges. The principal wife
is not allowed to indulge in conversation or any free intercourse
with strangers--a pleasure which is sometimes enjoyed with little
restraint by the others, as well as by the female domestics. Not much
jealousy appears to be entertained by these women, who are easily to be
procured. Their sons receive half as much patrimony as the sons of the
mistress of the household.
The social laws of China inculcate the good treatment of wives; but
the main solicitude of the legislator has been with respect to the
fixity of the law, and the rights of the male or supreme sex. Leaving
her parents’ home, the girl is transferred into bondage. Some men,
however, go to the house of their bride’s father, which is contrary to
the established form; but when once received across the threshold as a
son-in-law, he cannot be ejected, and leaves only when he is inclined.
A man may not marry within a certain period of his chief wife’s
death; but if he takes a woman who has already been his concubine,
the punishment is two degrees milder. So also with widows, who cannot
be forced by their friends to make any new engagement at all, but are
protected by the law. Women left in this position have a powerful
dissuasive against a fresh union, in the entire independence which they
enjoy, and which they could enjoy under no other circumstances.
With respect to the laws relating to consanguinity, the Chinese system
is particularly rigid. The prohibited limits lie very widely apart.
In this a change appears to have been effected under the Mantchus,
for among the traces of ancient manners which become visible at a
remoter period, revealed only, however, by the twilight of tradition, a
profligate state of public morals is indicated. We find parents giving
both their daughters in marriage to one man, while the intercourse of
the sexes was all but entirely unrestrained. The strictness of the
modern law is attended with some inconvenient results, for in China
the number of family names is very small, while it enacted that all
marriages between persons of the same family names are not only null
and void, but punishable by blows and a fine. All such contracts
between individuals previously related by marriage within four degrees,
are denounced as incestuous. A man may not marry his father’s or his
mother’s sister-in-law, his father’s or mother’s aunt’s daughter, his
son-in-law’s or daughter-in-law’s sister, his grandson’s wife’s sister,
his mother’s brother’s or sister’s daughter, or any blood relations
whatever, to any degree, however remote. Such offences are punished
with the bamboo. Death by strangling is enacted against one who marries
a brother’s widow, while with a grandfather’s or father’s wife it
is more particularly infamous, and the criminal suffers the extreme
disgrace of decapitation.
These regulations apply to the first wife, similar offences with regard
to the inferior being visited with penalties two degrees less severe.
Not only, however, are the degrees of consanguinity strictly defined,
but the union of classes is under restriction. An officer of government
within the third order marrying into a family under his jurisdiction,
or in which legal proceedings are under his investigation, is subject
to heavy punishment. The family of the girl, if they voluntarily aid
him, incur the chastisement also; but if they have submitted under fear
of his authority, they are exempt. To marry an absconded female, flying
from justice, is prohibited. To take forcibly as a wife a freeman’s
daughter, subjects the offender to death by strangulation. An officer
of government, or the son of any high functionary with hereditary
honours, who takes as his first or inferior wife a female comedian or
musician, or any member of a disreputable class, is punished by sixty
strokes of the bamboo. An equal punishment is inflicted on any priest
who marries at all; and, in addition to this, he is expelled his order.
If he delude a woman under false pretences, he incurs the penalty of
the worst incest. Slaves and free persons are forbidden to intermarry.
Any person, conniving at, or neglecting to denounce, such illegal
contracts, are criminals before the law.
The union after the betrothal must be completed; but it may also
be broken. Seven causes, according to the law, justify a man in
repudiating his first wife. These are--barrenness, lasciviousness,
disregard of her husband’s parents, talkativeness, thievish
propensities, an envious suspicious temper, and inveterate infirmity.
If, however, any of the three legal reasons against divorce can be
proved by the woman, she cannot be put away--first, that she has
mourned three years for her husband’s family; second, that the family
has become rich after having been poor before and at the time of
marriage; third, her having no father or mother living to receive her.
She is thus protected, in some measure, from her husband’s caprice.
If she commit adultery, however, he dare not retain, but must dismiss
her. If she abscond against his will, she may be severely flogged; if
she commit bigamy, she is strangled. When a man leaves his home, his
wife must remain in it three years before she can sue for a divorce,
and then give notice of her intention before a public tribunal. It is
forbidden, under peremptory enactments, to harbour a fugitive wife or
female servant.