256 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



belong to either division and to any clan except that 

 of the girl, comes and stays in the village for one 

 night and has intercourse with the girl. This must 

 take place before puberty, and it seemed that there 

 were few things regarded as more disgraceful than 

 that this ceremony should be delayed till after this 

 period. It might be a subject of reproach and abuse 

 for the remainder of the woman's life, and it was even 

 said that men might refuse to marry her if this cere- 

 mony had not been performed at the proper time/' 1 

 The ceremonial defloration thus accomplished is 

 obviously a puberty rite and nothing more, whatever 

 causes may have operated to require its performance 

 prior to the actual attainment of maturity. 



But if we look outside India we find the practice 

 of sexual intercourse before puberty not uncommon in 

 the lower culture. Among the Chukchi young men 

 marry early, and sexual relations sometimes begin 

 before full maturity is reached. Indeed children are 

 often reared together with a view to marriage. They 

 sleep with one another from the beginning and the 

 marriage is consummated on the first impulse of nature, 

 or even before the maturity of either of them. Such 

 marriages are considered to be the strongest. How 

 frequently in these circumstances premature con- 

 summation takes place is rendered probable from the 

 innate sensuality of the Chukchi and their enjoyment 

 of ribald sayings and lewd gestures, which would 

 familiarise the children with sexual matters from a very 

 early age. It is true that they have discovered that 

 an early marriage is injurious to the woman's health 

 and tends to diminish the number of births, and that 



1 Rivers, 503. 



