Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/65

 defloration, formerly in use in Cambodia and in Malabar, is evidently akin to religious prostitution. But this custom is nothing else than a mystic transformation of what was called the jus primæ noctis, of which I must first speak. It is important to distinguish several varieties of it. The first and most simple was the custom by which every newly-*married woman, before belonging to her husband, was obliged to give herself, or be given, to a certain number of men, either relatives, friends, or fellow-citizens. This was the custom among the Nasamons, according to Herodotus: "When a Nasamon marries, custom requires that his bride should yield herself on the first night to all his guests in turn; each one who has had commerce with her makes her a present, which he has been mindful to bring with him."

A similar custom is said to have existed in various countries of the globe, in ancient times in the Balearic Isles, more recently among the ancient Peruvians, in our own times among several aboriginal tribes of India; in Burmah, in Cashmere, in the south of Arabia, in Madagascar, and in New Zealand; but always as an exceptional practice, in use only in a small group or tribe. It is not impossible that here and there this usage, which is rare enough, may have been derived traditionally from an ancient marriage by classes, analogous to that still found among the Kamilaroi of Australia; but it may have been simply a mark of good-fellowship, or of conjugal generosity on the part of the bridegroom.

The seignorial jus primæ noctis, the right of the lord, is much more widely spread, and its existence cannot be contested. Among the Kaffirs, says Hamilton, the chiefs have the choice of the women for several leagues round. So also, until lately, in New Zealand, every pretty girl was taboo for the vulgar, and had to be first reserved for the chief. In New Mexico, with the Tahous, as Castañeda informs us, it is necessary, after having purchased the girl from her parents, to submit her to the seignorial right of