248 Maidenly Chastity unknown. 



Aneityum, and is now about to settle on Santo, 

 both islands in the New Hebrides. Maidenly 

 chastity was there, according to this unimpeach 

 able authority, an unknown conception, unlimited 

 hetairism being the normal condition of every 

 unmarried woman from earliest girlhood. And 

 licentiousness had so colored their modes of 

 thought and speech that it seemed impossible to 

 initiate them into Christian purity without, at 

 the same time, teaching them a new and cleaner 

 language. 



It is facts like these that moralists, especially 

 of the intuitive school, are called upon to face. 

 Nor are these the only perplexing facts bearing 

 upon the morality of the family. It must be 

 recognized that among savages marrying is, for 

 the most part, but the acquisition by the man of 

 a new object of gratification, a chattel which may 

 at once minister to his appetite and conduce to 

 his profit. Wives are, accordingly, stolen or 

 bought like any other property, though purchase, 

 which is at least as old as the Iliad and the Pen 

 tateuch, is far more prevalent at the present day 

 than capture. It is still the theory of Moslem 

 law. Among certain savage tribes a man with 

 several daughters is esteemed rich ; and when 

 among such people infanticide is practised, girls 



