264 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



temple of the god identified by Strabo with Zeus. She 

 prostituted herself with any man according to her 

 fancy until she reached the age of puberty. She was 

 then mourned for as dead, and doubtless her place was 

 supplied by another. The life she led does not seem 

 to have hindered her subsequent marriage. 1 The 

 Copts still marry their children as young as seven or 

 eight years, and mothers are seen among them who 

 are not more than twelve. 2 In Nubia not longer than 

 a generation or two ago, girls used to be disposed of 

 and accustomed to intercourse long before their first 

 menstruation. 3 In Abyssinia they are married before 

 puberty, sometimes as early their ninth year. 4 Among 

 the Masai both boys and girls are circumcised. An 

 uncircumcised boy is not permitted sexual intercourse 

 with a circumcised woman, but no objection exists to 

 his intercourse with any uncircumcised girl. 5 The 

 operation is performed on a girl shortly after her first 

 menstruation. Previous to that as early as eight years 

 old girls may be taken, as already observed, to live 

 with the warriors in their kraal, where Sir Harry 

 Johnston remarks they "have as agreeable a time of 

 it as can be provided in Masai society." The sexual 

 relations they sustain with the various inhabitants of 

 the kraal are " considered in no way to be immoral, 

 because the girls are under age and therefore cannot 



1 Strabo, xvii. 1,46. 



2 Ploss, op. tit. i. 346, apparently on the authority of Frau von 

 Minutoli. 3 Ploss, op. tit. i. 399, citing Abbadie. 



4 Post,Afr.Jur. i. 385, citing Riippell, Reise in Abyssinien,\i. 50. 



5 S. Bagge, /. A. I. xxxiv. 169. The Rev. J. Roscoe speaks of 

 wives who do not menstruate among the Baganda (Id. xxxi. 121 ; 

 xxxii. 39, 59) ; but it is not clear whether the absence of menstrua- 

 tion must be attributed to age or disease. 



