Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/633

 RELIGIOUS DEDICATION OF WOMEN 617

Besides the virgins who professed perpetual virginity in the monasteries, there were many women of the blood royal who led the same life in their own houses, having taken a vow of chastity, though they were not secluded; for they did not cease to visit their nearest relations when they were sick, or in childbirth, or when their first-borns were shorn and named. These women were held in great veneration for their chastity and purity, and, as a mark of worship and respect, they are called Ocllo, which was a name held sacred in their idolatry. The chastity of these women was not feigned, but was truly observed, on pain of being burnt alive if it was lost, or of being cast into the lake of lions. I myself was acquainted with one of these women, when she was in extreme old age, and who, having never married, was called Ocllo. She sometimes visited my mother, and I was given to understand that she was her great aunt, being a sister of her grandfather. She was held in great veneration and was given the first place, and I am witness that my mother so treated her, as well because she was her aunt, as on account of her age and purity of life. 2 *

It would be interesting to know whether the cloistered women of Peru developed from the home-staying celibates, as in early Christendom, or vice versa. The severity of the punishment inflicted upon violators of the Sun's women is also suggestive of early Christian practice. In 826, for example, Louis-le-Debon- naire decreed that the seduction of a nun was to be punished by the death of both partners in guilt, that the property was to be consecrated to the church, and that if the count in whose dis- trict the crime occurred neglected its prosecution, he was to be degraded, deprived of his office, undergo public penance, and pay his full wer-gild to the fisc. 27

The exclusive character of divine proprietorship in women is also seen in the recently published Babylonian code of Ham- murabi. The code prescribes that if a priestess leave the cloister and go into a tavern to drink, she shall be burned. 28 In this code, as well as in Garcillasso del Vega's description of the ancient Peruvian customs, the parallelism between the women devoted to the god Marduk and the wives of men is enlightening : " If anyone defame a priestess or the wife of a free man without proof, he shall be taken before the judge and his forehead shall be cut." 29 Fathers dedicated their daughters to Marduk with or

29 Ibid., p. 305.

27 Lea, An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy (Boston, 1884), p. 136. m Memoires, Vol. IV, " Textes elamites-semitiques " (Paris, 1902), p. 142. 20 Ibid., p. 144.