Among the Central Asian Turks, according to Vámbéry, a fallen girl is unknown.[313] Among the Kalmucks,[314] as also the Gypsies,[315] the girls take pride in having gallant affairs, but are dishonoured if they have children previous to marriage. A seducer among the Tunguses is bound to marry his victim and pay the price claimed for her.[316] In Circassia, an incontinent daughter is generally sold as soon as possible, being a disgrace to her parents.[317] Among the wretched inhabitants of Lob-nor, “immorality is severely punished.”[318] And regarding the Let-htas, a Hill Tribe of Burma, Mr. O’Riley states that, until married, the youth of both sexes are domiciled in two long houses at opposite ends of the village, and “when they may have occasion to pass each other, they avert their gaze, so they may not see each other’s faces.”[319]
As to the aborigines of the Indian Archipelago, Professor Wilken states that side by side with peoples who indulge in great licentiousness, there are others who are remarkably chaste. Thus, in Nias, the pregnancy of an unmarried girl is punished with death, inflicted not only upon her but upon the seducer.[320] Among the Hill Dyaks, the young men are carefully separated from the girls, licentious connections between the sexes being strictly prohibited;[321] and the Sibuyaus, a tribe belonging to the Sea Dyaks, though they do not consider the sexual intercourse of their young people a positive crime, yet attach an idea of great indecency to irregular connections, and are of opinion that an unmarried woman with child must be offensive to the superior powers.[322]
By some of the independent tribes of the Philippines also, according to Chamisso, chastity is held in great honour, “not only among the women, but also among the young girls, and is protected by very severe laws;”[323]—a statement which is confirmed by Dr. Hans Meyer and Professor Blumentritt with reference to the Igorrotes of Luzon.[324]
In New Guinea, too, chastity is strictly maintained.[325] Mr. G. A. Robinson and the Catechist Clark, who lived for years with the aborigines, both declare their belief in the virtue of the young women;[326] and Dr. Finsch assures us that the natives of Dory are, in that respect, superior to many civilized nations in Europe.[327] The French naturalists and some English writers spoke highly of the morality of the young people among the Tasmanians.[328] The women of Uea, Loyalty Islands, are described by Erskine as “strictly chaste before marriage, and faithful wives afterwards.”[329] In Fiji, great continence prevailed among the young folk, the lads being forbidden to approach women till eighteen or twenty years old.[330] Speaking of the aborigines of Melanesia, Dr. Codrington remarks, “It is certain that in these islands generally there was by no means that insensibility in regard to female virtue with which the natives are so commonly charged.”[331] In Samoa, the girls were allowed to cohabit with foreigners, but not with their countrymen,[332] and the chastity of the chiefs’ daughters was the pride of the tribe. But Mr. Turner remarks that, though this virtue was ostensibly cultivated here by both sexes, it was more a name than a reality.[333]