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 CHAPTER III.

PROMISCUITY.

I. Has there been a Stage of Promiscuity?—Promiscuity rare among the superior vertebrates—It has been exceptional in mankind. II. Cases of Human Promiscuity.—Promiscuity among the Troglodytes, the ancient Arabs, the Agathyrses, the Anses, the Garamantes, the ancient Greeks, in the Timæus, in China, in India, among the Andamanites, in California, among the aborigines of India, among the Zaporogs, and the Ansarians—Insufficience of these proofs. III. Hetaïrism.—Jus primæ noctis—Religious hetaïrism at Babylon, in Armenia—Religious prostitution—Religious defloration—The jus primæ noctis with the Nasamons, in the Balearic Isles, in ancient Peru, in Asia, etc.—The right of the chief with the Kaffirs, in New Zealand, in New Mexico, in Cochin-China, in feudal Europe—The right of religious prelibation—Religious defloration in Cambodia—The reason of the right of prelibation—The jus primæ noctis confounded with the simple licence of unmarried women—Shamelessness of girls in Australia, Polynesia, America, Malaya, Abyssinia, etc.—The indotata in primitive Rome—Loan and barter of women in America and elsewhere, and among the ancient Arabs—Actual promiscuity has been rare in humanity. I. Has there been a Stage of Promiscuity?

Having made our preliminary investigation of love, sexual unions, marriage, or what corresponds to it, and the family in the animal kingdom, we are now in a position to approach the examination of corresponding social facts in regard to man. The method of evolution requires us to begin our inquiry with the lowest forms of sexual association, and there is none lower, morally and intellectually, than promiscuity; that is to say, a social condition so gross