PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 263 



puberty. 1 Child-marriage is also common among the 

 Tagbanua. 2 On the Sandwich Islands the girls marry 

 before puberty ; and according to a writer cited by 

 Ploss menstruation is held to be the result of coition, 

 and its appearance in an unmarried girl is taken as a 

 sign of misconduct. 8 



In Madagascar, children are betrothed by their 

 parents while very young, and even married totally 

 irrespective of their inclinations, and often before they 

 are able to understand the nature of the engagement 

 into which they are entering. 4 Independently of 

 this, public opinion tolerated until lately licentiousness 

 among them. Of the Valave, one of the Malagasy 

 tribes, it is recorded in particular that the children 

 copulate at a very early age without any interference 

 by their parents, who indeed encourage and take a 

 positive pleasure in watching them. To these customs 

 the comparative sterility of the women is not without 

 reason ascribed. 5 



Precocious intercourse of the sexes is, as might be 

 expected, very common on the continent of Africa. 

 At Thebes in ancient times a beautiful girl of noble 

 family and tender years was regularly dedicated at the 



1 Worcester, Philippine Journ. Science, i. (Manila, 1906) 850. 



2 McGee, Amer. Anthr. N. S. i. 172, citing Worcester, Phil. Ids. 



3 Ploss, op. cit. i. 235. In face of the known character of the 

 Sandwich Islanders I do not understand how the sexual intercourse 

 of an unmarried girl can be deemed misbehaviour. Unfortunately, 

 for reasons already given, I am unable to check Floss's statement. 



4 Ellis, Hist. Mad. i. 167. 



6 Sibree,./. A. I. ix. 39; Ploss, op. cit. i. 301, citing vaguely 

 Audebert. The latter gives details which I forbear to transcribe. 

 Sibree, Great Afr. Isl. 248, ascribes the sterility of the Malagasy 

 partly to the frequent marriages of relations and partly to the cause 

 mentioned above. Cf. Anthropos^ ii. 983. 





