M46 Sacred women in the Tamil temples of Southern India. Such women are sometimes married to the god and possessed by him.
198 J. A. Dubois, _Mœurs, Institutions et Cérémonies des Peuples de l’Inde_ (Paris, 1825), ii. 353 _sqq._; J. Shortt, “The Bayadère or dancing-girls of Southern India,” _Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London_, iii. (1867-69) pp. 182-194; Edward Balfour, _Cyclopaedia of India_3 (London, 1885), i. 922 _sqq._; W. Francis, in _Census of India, 1901_, vol. xv., _Madras_, Part I. (Madras, 1902) pp. 151 _sq._; E. Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras, 1906), pp. 36 _sq._, 40 _sq._ The office of these sacred women has in recent years been abolished, on the ground of immorality, by the native Government of Mysore. See _Homeward Mail_, 6th June 1909 (extract kindly sent me by General Begbie).
199 Edgar Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras, 1909), iii. 37-39. Compare _id._, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras, 1906), pp. 29 _sq._ In Southern India the maternal uncle often takes a prominent part in the marriage ceremony to the exclusion of the girl’s father. See, for example, E. Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, ii. 497, iv. 147. The custom is derived from the old system of mother-kin, under which a man’s heirs are not his own children but his sister’s children. As to this system see below, Chapter XII., “Mother-kin and Mother Goddesses.”
201 Francis Buchanan, “A Journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar,” in J. Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, viii. (London, 1811), p. 749.
M47 In Travancore the dancing-girls are regularly married to the god.
202 N. Subramhanya Aiyar, in _Census of India, 1901_, vol. xxvi., _Travancore_, Part i. (Trivandrum, 1903), pp. 276 _sq._ I have to thank my friend Mr. W. Crooke for referring me to this and other passages on the sacred dancing-girls of India.
M48 Among the Ewe peoples of West Africa the sacred prostitutes are regarded as the wives of the god.
203 A. B. Ellis, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa_ (London, 1890), pp. 140 _sq._
205 A. B. Ellis, _op. cit._ pp. 148 _sq._ Compare Des Marchais, _Voyage en Guinée et à Cayenne_ (Amsterdam, 1731), ii. 144-151; P. Bouche, _La Côte des Esclaves_ (Paris, 1885), p. 128. The Abbé Bouche calls these women _danwés_.