252 HISTOEICAL RACES 



but discouraged marriage among all those who would attain to 

 wisdom. It would appear, however, that celibacy, though possibly 

 widespread in the earlier days of Buddhism, soon ceased to be 

 practised except by a small proportion of the adherents of Buddha. 

 ' It is said that in Nepal, under the modern Gurkha rule, the 

 celibate occupies a lower position than the married monk, to whom 

 the services in the temples are committed. It is said, too, that 

 the Lamas of Sikkim and other northern countries constantly have 

 children living with them, though they do not admit them to be 

 their own. Yet for all that celibacy is the rule, and, nominally at 

 any rate, the great majority of Lamistic monks in Western Asia 

 are unmarried coenobites, who live together in monasteries.' ^ 



Much evidence could be given as to the view taken of celibacy 

 and of the duty of marrying early. ' The Oriental ', says Polak, 

 ' does not understand how any one can remain a celibate who has 

 the chance to marry.'- ' Le celibat ', says Fustel de Coulanges, 

 ' devait etre a la fois une impiete grave et un malheur ; une 

 impiete, parce que le celibataire mettait en peril le bonheur des 

 manes de sa famille ; un malheur, parce qu'il ne devait re9evoir 

 lui-meme aucun culte apres sa mort et ne devait pas connaitre 

 ce qui rejouit les manes. C'etait a la fois pour lui et pour ces 

 ancetres une sorte de damnation.' ^ Doughty describes the 

 reasons for the absence of celibacy among the Arabs.^ The same 

 conditions are found in China.* Of Corea, Ross says ' the male 

 human being who is never married is never called a " man ", 

 whatever his age, but goes by the name of " yataw ", a name 

 given by the Chinese to unmarriageable young girls, and the man 

 of thirteen or fourteen has a perfect right to strike, abuse, order 

 about the " yatow " of thirty who dares not so much as open his 

 lips to complain '.^ ' Among natives of India ', says Kerr, ' it is 

 considered an indispensable duty to enter into the marriage state.' ' 

 ' A Hindoo male ', according to Wattal, ' must marry and beget 

 children— son, if you please — to perform his funeral rites lest his 

 spirit wander uneasily in the waste places of the earth. The very 

 name of son, " Putra ", means one who saves his father's soul from 

 the hell called " Puta ". A Hindoo maiden unmarried at puberty 



' Monier- Williams, Buddhism, p. 269. ^ Polak, Persien, vol. i, p. 205. 



^ Fustel de Coulanges, Cite antique, p. 50. * Doughty, Travels, vol. i, 



p. 321. See also Bertherand, Medecine et Hygiene des Arahes. * Gardner, 



Journ. Eth. Soc, new series, vol. ii, p. 19. " Ross, Corea, p. 313. ' Kerr, 



Xalirrs nf Jndia, p. 202. 



