The History of Prostitution Part 36

"A brave named 'Big Rain' was elected chief of the village. He possessed a most beautiful squaw, who was the admiration of the young men, and all were plotting to win her from her lord. I determined to steal her, be the consequences what they might." Having enticed the husband to a smoking-party, he says, "I went to Big Rain's lodge, dressed and painted in the extreme of fas.h.i.+on, and saw the lady reclining upon her couch. She started up, saying, 'Who is here?' 'Hus.h.!.+ it is I.' 'What do you want here?' 'I have come to see you because I love you.' 'Don't you know that I am the chief's wife?' 'Yes, I know it, but he does not love you as I do. I can paint your face and bring you fine horses, but as long as you are the wife of Big Rain he will never paint your face. With you by my side I could bring home many scalps. Then we could often dance, and our hearts would be merry.' * * * * 'Go, now,' she pleaded, 'for if my husband should return I fear he would kill you. Go, for your own sake and for mine.' 'No, I will not go till you give me a pledge that you will be mine.' She hesitated for a moment, and then slipped a ring from her finger and placed it on mine. All I had to do now was to watch for a favorable chance to take her away. * * * * The appointed time had arrived, and on going to the place of a.s.signation, I found the lady true to her word--in fact, she was there first. We joined the party, and were absent about a week. We succeeded in capturing (stealing?) one hundred and seventeen horses, and arrived safe with them in the camp. Meanwhile Big Rain discovered the loss of his wife. When we rode in, he took no part in the rejoicing, but ordered his wife and me to be surrounded, and, with half a dozen of his sisters, all armed with scourges, administered a most unmerciful whipping.

I received it with Indian fort.i.tude. If I had resisted, they would have been justified in killing me; also, if they had drawn one drop of blood, I should have been justified in taking their lives."

Without wis.h.i.+ng to delay the progress of the narrative, we can not resist the impulse to express admiration of the Indian punishment for a seducer of married women. Could the same unromantic penalty be duly and zealously inflicted for similar transgressions, in places of more pretensions, some of the scandals of civilized life would be curtailed. To resume:

"I sent word to the wife of Big Rain that I should go out again the next night, and should expect her company. She returned a favorable answer, and was faithful to her promise. On my return I received another such flogging as the first. Two nights afterward I started on a third expedition, my new wife accompanying me, and received a third sound thras.h.i.+ng from her husband. Finally, he grew furious; but my soldiers said to him, 'You have whipped him three times, and shall whip him no more; we will buy your claim.' He acceded to the offer, and consented to resign all interest and t.i.tle in Mrs. Big Rain for the consideration of one war-horse, ten guns, ten chief's coats of scarlet cloth, ten pairs of new leggins, and the same number of moccasins."[357] This was not a bad remuneration for a faithless woman.

In another case an intrigue resulted tragically. One of the wives of a Minnetaree chief eloped with a man who had formerly been her lover. He deserted her in a short time. She returned to her father's hut, whither her husband traced her. He walked deliberately into the hut, smoked quietly for a time, and then took her by the hair, led her to the door, and killed her with a single blow of his tomahawk.[358] The caprice or generosity of the same chief gave a very different conclusion to a similar incident which occurred some time afterward. Another of his wives eloped with a young man who was not able to support her as she wished, and both returned to the village. She presented herself before her husband and asked his pardon. He sent for the man, inquired if they still loved each other, and on their acknowledgment gave up his wife to her lover, made them a present of three horses, and restored them both to his favor.[359]

With the exception of some national customs, the outward life of the Indian is generally decent. A temporary interval of wild license, corresponding to the Saturnalia of the ancients, and called the festival of dreams, is common among the Canadian tribes. This carnival lasts fifteen days, and, laying aside all their usual gravity, they then commit every imaginable extravagance.[360] Our authority does not say whether immorality forms a portion of this relaxation, but from the custom of other bands it is not improbable. Lewis and Clarke mention several instances in which they were present at dancing and similar festivals, and witnessed exhibitions of the most foul and revolting indecency.

Mr. Catlin records his opinion that the Old World has very little of superior morality or virtue to hold as an example to the North American Indians, and we are not inclined to enter into any long comparison of the races. The manners of each have been described; and while it would be unjust to expect the untutored son of the forest to display as much delicacy as his more cultivated fellow-men, it would be equally ungenerous to a.s.sert that the white female population, as an aggregate, are governed by the impulses which apparently sway the Indian woman.

But whatever doubts there may exist as to the immorality of the Indian women in their natural state, all are entirely removed as soon as they come in contact with the white race. Those in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada have rapidly learned the worst of vices.

They are drunken, sensual, and depraved. The venereal disease commits frightful ravages among them; in fact, most of their sickness arises from excess of one kind or another. Maclean, in his "Twenty-five years' Service in Hudson's Bay," says that the men employed by the company are reconciled to their hard employment and poor remuneration by the immorality of the women, of whom numbers are prost.i.tutes, selling themselves for the smallest remuneration. On the Northwest Coast chast.i.ty is scarcely even a name. The sea tribes are the most licentious, and at some places, where s.h.i.+ps touch for supplies, hundreds of women come down to the beach, and by indecent exposures of their persons endeavor to obtain permission to come on board. Sir George Simpson received a visit from a chief who wanted to negotiate the loan of Lady Simpson, and offered his squaw in temporary exchange.

Many of the traders on the Upper Missouri, from motives of policy, connect themselves with women of the tribes. The most beautiful girls aspire to this station, which elevates them above their ordinary servile occupations. These engagements are not marriages in our sense of the word; a price is paid for the girl, and she is transferred at once to the trader's house. With equal facility he can annul the contract, for which her father is not sorry, as he is thus enabled to sell her over again. The tariff of prices will range from two horses to a handful of awls: such is the remuneration for which an Indian chief will prost.i.tute his daughter.

It must be added that occasionally the couple live permanently together as man and wife, the possibility of their doing so being always supposed in the first instance.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

BARBAROUS NATIONS.[361]

Africa.--Australasia.--West Indies.--Java.--Sumatra.--Borneo.

The relations of the s.e.xes among uneducated races are modified by every circ.u.mstance of their position, but the natural ascendency of the strong over the weak is universally displayed, and wherever woman is allowed a social rank approaching that of man, it will be found that a degree of civilization has been attained. Many branches of the human family have advanced, more or less, beyond the utterly savage state, the love of ornament and the practice of exchange having raised them one step in the scale, while they vary as much in the characteristics of their barbarism as civilized nations do in their refinement. Waiving generalities, a better idea of their respective customs will be obtained by noticing the position of females among the different nations.

AFRICA.

Some of the most wild and savage tribes of the human family are to be found in the immense peninsula of Africa. Observation has proved that a medium state of refinement is accompanied with the least immorality, and that it is among the merest savages and the most highly-polished communities that the greatest profligacy exists. In order to present the subject clearly, we will make a geographical arrangement, and, commencing from the south, pa.s.s over the continent, till we reach the valley of the Lower Nile.

The Hottentots are a dissolute, profligate race, and have borne that character from the earliest period. It was remarked by Van Riebeck in 1655, and confirmed by Colonel Napier in 1840, the latter describing them as "proverbially unchaste." Indecency and lewdness are their characteristics; and even now, though accustomed to clothing, it is not uncommon for them to strip themselves, and dance in a lascivious manner at their festivals. The females prost.i.tute themselves readily to strangers, some from inclination, others for money or a gift of finery; but we have no means of estimating the numbers of this disreputable cla.s.s. A few of superior order are scattered among these degraded creatures, and intelligent and well-conducted women have attracted the notice of travelers.

The pastoral Kaffirs are more moral, though more ferocious than the Hottentots, being more addicted to arms, and less to debauch. They practice polygamy, buying their wives for so many head of cattle. The girls undergo a probation before marriage, during which they are kept in seclusion. As the tribe wander from place to place, they carry their women with them, and upon them all the domestic labor falls, even the chief's wives a.s.sisting in grinding corn and similar work. Divorce is easy on very slight grounds. We occasionally hear of women committing fornication, but no professed cla.s.s of prost.i.tutes has been described. Marriage is not held as a sacred tie, but adultery by a wife is severely punished. Natural affections appear extremely weak among the Kaffirs, and mothers have but little attachment to their children, the sickly and feeble being sometimes abandoned to avoid the trouble of rearing them. Mrs. Ward knew of a woman who buried alive a sickly daughter. The little creature was but imperfectly interred; it burst from the grave and ran home. A second time it was subjected to the same torture, and again escaped. A third attempt was made with a similar result, when its mother received it, and it ultimately recovered. Such instances of inhumanity are not rare. Husbands frequently drag their sick wives into a thicket, and leave them to die. It is important to mention that, where these people have embraced Christianity, their manners have totally changed; polygamy has been renounced, and they manifest an inclination to conform to the morals taught them.

Between the tropics the people are notorious for licentiousness. Morality is a strange idea to them, nor is a man restrained by any social law from intercourse with as many females as he pleases. The result is, that women are regarded strictly as marketable commodities, and the commonest feelings of humanity are unknown. On the Gold Coast husbands openly prost.i.tute their wives for money. In other places an adulterer pays a fine to the husband, and many urge their wives to commit the crime for the sake of the penalty. When Laird visited the Niger in 1832, he found the condition of the females upon its borders most humiliating. Polygamy was universal, and wives were reduced to slavery in their own houses. In short, the race may be described as the most idle, ignorant, and profligate in Africa. The king possessed one hundred and forty wives, one of whom was under thirteen years of age, and all had been purchased for a few muskets or a piece of cloth. Half a dozen of the fattest were known as his favorites, and one of them was said to weigh over three hundred and fifty pounds. The mother of this prince lived in his palace, and amused the court with obscene dances. Adultery by any inmate of the harem was punished with death. When a man died, one at least of his wives was expected to attend him; she was bound and thrown into the river. In another place the woman was buried alive; and in the kingdom of Fundal, when a chief died leaving fifteen wives, the king selected the ugliest to be hanged over the grave, and transferred the remaining fourteen to his own quarters.

The native of Western Africa looks upon his wife as a source of pleasure and gain, reckoning her as property to the amount she can earn. With a strange inconsistency, some of these barbarians profess a sentiment of attachment. The King of Atta told Lander that he loved him as he loved his wife. As he was a polygamist, it is to be a.s.sumed the traveler thought it a divided affection. Marriage is held as one of the common occurrences of life. When a man is old enough, he takes a wife, and goes on adding to his property until he probably owns a hundred, if he has means enough to buy them. Even under this system many women can not obtain stated husbands, as some men will not take permanent wives; but it is safe to a.s.sert that no single man lives without female intercourse, and no single woman remains chaste. A wife suspected of adultery is forced to drink a poisonous decoction, but she sometimes bribes the priest to render it harmless.

Widows who have lived on bad terms with their husbands have to undergo the same ordeal. An illicit connection with the king's wife results in death to both parties, but for the wife of a chief the gift of a slave is an expiation. The price of a handsome wife is from eighteen to thirty-six dollars; a plain-looking one is worth about seven dollars. As a man's inclination varies, he often sells one wife, and buys another with the proceeds of the transaction.

In the kingdom of Dahomey, once the centre of the slave-trade, a most profligate population is found, and the traveler entering its sea-port is immediately struck with the immodesty of the women. Throughout the country the same characteristic is observable; they are profligates from the highest to the lowest. The king is superior in brutality and filthiness (traits which seem hereditary to the throne of Dahomey) to any of his subjects. He has thousands of wives, his chiefs have hundreds, his subjects tens. The royal favorites are too sacred for the gaze of common people, who must turn aside or hide their faces if any of them are pa.s.sing. Strangers are excluded from the harem, but the privileged n.o.bility attend the king's feasts, at which his wives take a leading part in drinking rum and conducting the debauch. When the king desires to confer honor on any favorite, he chooses a wife for him, and presents her publicly. She hands her husband a cup of rum, which is a sign of union.

The King of Dahomey supports an army of several thousand amazons, who dress in male attire, do not marry, and are supposed not to have intercourse with men. These troops were long considered invincible, but a few years ago they encountered a defeat on one of their marauding expeditions, and a thousand or more were killed on the field.

As the king and his wealthy subjects have so many wives, poor people are obliged to content themselves with the company of prost.i.tutes, who are a licensed and taxed cla.s.s in Dahomey. There appears to be a band of these in every village, but their profits are often insufficient for support, and they resort to industrial occupation, hiring themselves to carry heavy burdens, etc. One traveler saw two hundred and fifty collected in a troop, and another was a.s.sailed by a crowd of women who offered to "be his wives"

for a drop of rum. Many of the poorest cla.s.s stroll about naked, and a gratuity, however small, will purchase their favors.

The dirty, lazy, dull people of the Fantee Coast have the same moral aspect as the subjects of Dahomey. Parents sell their children, husbands sell their wives, women sell themselves, for a trifling sum. One woman was so anxious to make a bargain of this kind that she took possession of a traveler's bed, and force was necessary to expel her. Marriage is a mere purchase, a wife costing about sixteen dollars. Women are unsalable when more than fifteen or sixteen years old. Any man committing adultery is forced to buy his paramour at her cost price.

Along the coast of Benin similar customs prevail. Public dancers act as prost.i.tutes, and offer themselves at a small price. Every woman considers it an honor to be the king's companion, even for one night.

In Ashantee, where also polygamy prevails, adultery is common, especially among the king's wives, who are hewn to pieces if discovered. The people are profligate beyond any thing which can be conceived. A practice of unusual depravity prevails among the Kroomen, a son who inherits his father's property taking his wives also, and thus his own mother becomes his slave.

The Edeeyahs of Fernando Po offer a strong contrast to the above, treating their women with consideration, and a.s.signing them far less than the usual amount of work. Polygamy is allowed. The first wife taken by a man must be betrothed to him at least two years before marriage, and during that time he is in a state of servitude like that of Jacob for Rachel, the girl being kept in seclusion. When she appears as a married woman, all the virgins of the tribe salute and dance round her. This custom is only observed with the first wife, the others being concubines who are governed by her. Adultery is severely punished: for the first offense both parties lose one hand; for the second, the man and his relatives are heavily fined and chastised, the woman loses the other hand, and is driven from the settlement into the woods--an exile more terrible than mutilation.

It would be but a needless repet.i.tion to pa.s.s in review all the various groups of African states. We have seen that in the west profligacy is a universal feature, and it is scarcely less so in the east. In Zulu, for example, the king has a seraglio of fifteen hundred women. The manners of the communities in the Sahara are imperfectly known, but appear to be above those in other parts of Africa, though many customs prevail which shock our ideas of decency. A chief offered Richardson his two daughters as wives. Immorality is usually a secret crime, and their general customs with regard to s.e.xual intercourse are outwardly decent. Still the condition of the female s.e.x is degraded, for they are regarded as materials of a man's household, and ministers to his sensuality.

Abyssinia presents various characteristics of manners. In Tajura men live with their wives for a short time, and then sell them. Parents are known to hire their daughters out as prost.i.tutes. One chief offered his daughter as a temporary or permanent companion to a traveler, and a woman presented herself as a candidate for a similar appointment, saying, by way of recommendation, that she had already lived with five men. One strong evidence of the immorality of Tajura is the fact that syphilis affects nearly the whole population, man and woman, sultan and beggar, priests and their wives inclusive.

In Shoa the king has one wife and five hundred concubines, the latter scattered in various parts of his dominions. He makes a present to the parents of any girl he may desire, and is usually well paid in return for the honor. The governors of provinces and cities follow his example. There are two kinds of marriage in Shoa: one a mere arrangement to cohabit, the other a holy ceremony. The former is almost invariably used, the man and woman declaring before witnesses that they mean to live together. Divorces are as easily obtained, only mutual consent being necessary. A wife is valued according to the amount of her property, and the owner of a hut, a field, and a bedstead is sure to get a husband. When they quarrel and part, a division of property takes place. Concubines are procured as well from the Christians as from Mohammedans and pagans, but the latter are forced to declare themselves converted, for Shoa is professedly a Christian kingdom. A favorite concubine holds the same position as a married woman, and no distinction is made between legitimate and illegitimate children. The court overflows with licentiousness, numerous adulteries take place, and the example is followed by the people, among whom a chaste married couple is rare. The sacerdotal cla.s.s of Shoa is notoriously drunken and profligate; in a word, the morals of the country are of the lowest description. In the Mohammedan states of the neighborhood the condition of the female s.e.x is also degraded, and if there is less general prost.i.tution, it is because every woman is the slave of some man's l.u.s.t, and is closely watched by him.

In the provinces of Kordofan, south of the Nubian mountains, the sentiment of love is not altogether unknown, and men fight duels with whips of hippopotamus hide on account of a disputed mistress. The wife is, however, a virtual slave, and is still more degraded if she prove barren, the husband then solacing himself with a concubine, who is raised to the rank of a wife if she bear a child. The general demeanor of the girls of Kordofan is modest, and their lives are chaste, while the married women are addicted to intrigue, especially if neglected by their husbands. In some parts of the country men consider it an honor for their wives to have intercourse with strangers, and often a.s.sist the woman to this end. There is a cla.s.s of pretty dancers who are usually prost.i.tutes, and are celebrated for their successes in the latter vocation. Marriage is arranged without the woman's consent; the man bargains for her, pays the price, and takes her home. A feast and dance sometimes celebrate the event. When a wife is ill treated she demands a divorce, and returns home, taking her female children with her. Trifles often produce these separations, an insufficient allowance of pomatum to grease her skin being a valid complaint. These remarks apply to the fixed population; the wandering tribes of Kordofan are a moral, modest race, naked, but not indecent.

A chief of the Berbers offered a late traveler his choice of two daughters for a temporary companion, both being already married. Many women there are ready to prost.i.tute themselves for a present. A virgin may be purchased, either as a wife or a concubine, for a horse. A young Berber, who was asked why he did not marry, pointed to a colt and said, "When that is a horse I shall marry."

The condition of women in Khartum, on the upper borders of the Nile, as described in Ferdinand Werne's account of his voyage to discover the sources of the White Stream, is so degraded that it may be said with truth the female monkeys of the neighboring woods occupy a far n.o.bler and more natural position. Farther up the river the morals are purer. The Keks are described as leading a blameless life. Marriageable girls and children are kept in seclusion, and during a considerable part of the year the women live in villages apart from the men, who possess only temporary huts, the substantial habitations of their wives being accessible to them during the rainy season. A man dare not approach the "harem village" at any other time, but some of the women occasionally creep into their husbands' huts.

Polygamy is allowed, but is too costly for any but the chiefs.

Among some of the tribes on the banks of the White Nile, women sell their children, if they can do so with profit. The maidens appear naked, but married women wear an ap.r.o.n. All experience shame at appearing unclothed before travelers. Beyond the Mountains of the Moon Werne found a people whom he describes as chaste and decent, where unmarried men and women were kept separate.

Our information is so limited that any inquiry into the morals of Africa must be incomplete, but enough has been stated to give a fair idea of the average morality. Statistics are of course impossible, but from a description in general terms we can not hesitate to form an opinion.

AUSTRALASIA.

In this division of the earth's surface are generally included the great island of Australia, Papua or New Guinea, and some adjacent islands, comprising New Caledonia and Van Diemen's Land. Politically and geographically the islands of New Zealand are also in this division, but there is some question as to the propriety of this distribution for ethnographical purposes. Opinions vary as to the state of the New Zealanders. There is much similarity between them and the inhabitants of some of the Polynesian Islands, while there are equally strong points of resemblance between them and the Australian aborigines. The New Zealander, when discovered by Cook, was far superior to the Australian in intelligence and in the arts of life. He inhabited a decent hut, could build a stockade fort, and lived upon cooked food. The Australian lived in a hollow tree, could put together a temporary hut made of bark and brush, and fed upon grubs, roots, and raw flesh. Among such a race as the Australian blacks it is needless to say that the position occupied by women was of the most degrading and brutal character.

The Australian savage does not even pay his future spouse the compliment of wooing her. Might makes right in their case. The woman is often betrothed by her parent or kinsman, and becomes her husband's property by sale and bargain. If this has not been effected in the usual way, he acquires his marital privileges by an inroad on the grounds of another tribe, and then meeting a woman, he knocks her down with his _waddy_ (a heavy club), and carries her to a place of security, where he makes himself master of her person by force. This, indeed, is so usual a course of procedure, that it has given rise to a belief that the Australian rival bachelors compete for a wife by knocking her on the head, and whoever fells her bears away the belle.

The habits of the native Australians are not so observable now as they were at the commencement of the system of colonization. At first a continual intercourse was kept up between them and the settlers. The reciprocal injuries inflicted upon each other, in which the whites were more to blame than the natives, brought about an exterminating warfare.

The black race has gradually wasted away from the settled, or rather partially settled country, while the much-diminished interior tribes have retreated, in South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria, far into the wilderness, beyond ordinary communication with the white man.

In Van Diemen's Land the natives were almost extirpated by the constant warfare carried on between them and the settlers, convict as well as free, and the government was obliged to take the few survivors under its protection, and to establish a place of refuge for them. They were accordingly collected, and deported to an island in Ba.s.s Straits, under the charge of a special commissioner. But, notwithstanding the increased comforts of their condition, and their immunity from the murderous hostility of their white foes, they have languished, and, instead of the population increasing, it has gradually decreased, until, at the present time, it is believed that the numbers are under one hundred. In Central Australia, north of the Murray, the tribes are still comparatively numerous, and in some cases warlike and hostile to settlers.

The married women among the aborigines are called "gins," and the single girls "lubbras." The women follow their lords on their migrations and excursions, carry the loads, and do all the work. They bear patiently and submissively the blows and ill-usage to which they are subject. Polygamy is practiced by the more powerful men of the tribes, who appropriate to themselves such women as they choose, and cast them off at pleasure. Now and then they sell or present a "gin" to a friend in want of such a commodity. There is considerable disproportion between the s.e.xes, attributable partly to continual ill-usage, partly to the habit prevalent among savage nations of destroying female infants.

At one time in the history of these colonies, the outlying stock-men and shepherds occasionally endeavored to solace their loneliness with a "lubbra" whom they had managed to decoy from her lawful owner, but the half-breeds from such unions are very rare. The natives, notwithstanding the low estimate they have of their women, are exceedingly jealous of them as property, and keep them away as much as possible from the stations.

Chast.i.ty is at all times of little account among savages, always excepting the old Celts and Teutons, who held continence in high esteem, and whose women were objects of general respect. From the peculiar habits of the Australian aborigines themselves, it can scarcely be said that prost.i.tution exists as an inst.i.tution. The woman has no choice in the matter. As between the "gins" and "lubbras" and the white settlers, there is scarcely any chance for prost.i.tution. A woman now and then visits the towns or settlements, but always in company with her male friends. When quite young, the girls are not more disagreeable than others of their complexion. When more advanced in years they are absolutely repulsive, and are rendered hideous by scars and other evidences of brutality. At all times both s.e.xes are loathsome in their persons, and are clad in filthy blankets or sheep-skins, unless when they can pick up tattered remnants of European clothing.

Among the New Zealanders the state of the women was a little better than among the Australians. The amelioration was rather in degree than principle. They were subject to the same control by parents and kinsmen.

They were disposed of in marriage as matter of right, and were often betrothed from infancy, in which case they were _tapu_ or _taboo_ to other persons than the young chief or warrior who had purchased the reversion.

Cruel punishments of the women for infidelity were general, and even for minor offenses they were subject to very severe chastis.e.m.e.nt. In one case, even recently, a New Zealand woman was suspended by the heels naked, and in that position unmercifully whipped. Her sense of the outrage was so keen that she committed suicide. Licentiousness among the women was probably more rare formerly than now. Adultery was punished in both parties by death, and the family of the male offender were often involved in the punishment. Now, however, the constant visits of whalers and seafaring men, the gradual settlement of whites in the islands, and, above all, the profits and advantages derivable from illicit intercourse, cause the women to be free of their persons. Parents and even husbands are oftentimes the princ.i.p.al gainers by the transaction, and even negotiate the profit to be made. The marriage ceremony, too, was formerly of so easy a character that, whatever the New Zealand woman might have thought of it, no settler, and especially no seaman, would feel himself bound by the tie, and, although a.s.sociations based on this weak bond were not wrong in the woman, they paved the way for less excusable relations.

The influence of civilized inst.i.tutions and the presence of a regular clergy and missionaries is effecting some improvement in native morals, and many lawful marriages have taken place between the whites and the native women, the offspring of which--a fine race of half-breeds--may be met with throughout the Australian colonies. The example of the consideration in which the native women thus married are held, and the rights and social position that they acquire, is not without influence on others, and predisposes them to the same course. Among the tribes removed from the coast and withdrawn from civilized control, the ancient customs are still kept up in their integrity, and the chiefs and natives jealously resist all encroachments on their independence. Among those chiefs, even, who have been converted to a nominal Christianity, Rauperaha for instance, heathen inst.i.tutions of revenge for injury, polygamy, power of life and death over their wives and followers are maintained, and the humanizing lessons of the Gospel have made but little way toward an amendment of their barbarous lives. In New Zealand it is a.s.serted that the venereal disease is very prevalent among the natives, and from their diet and licentious habits is often fatal.