which mentions a stupatrio officials[1] practised at a certain period among the Bisayos of the Philippine Islands: 'There is no known example of a custom so barbarous as that which had been there established, of having public officials, and even paid very dearly, to take the virginity of young girls, the same being considered to be an obstacle to the pleasures of the husband. As a fact there no longer exists any trace of this infamous practice since the establishment of the Spanish rule, ……but even to-day a Bisayo feels vexed to find his wife safe from suspicion, because he concludes, that not having excited the desire of anyone, she must have some bad quality which will prevent him from being happy with her.'
"On the Malabar Coast, also, there were Brahmins whose only religious office was to gather the virgin flower of young girls. These latter used to pay them for it, without which they could not find husbands. The King of Calicut himself used to grant the right of the first night to a Brahmin; the King of Tamassat grants it to the first stranger who arrives in the town; whereas the King of Campa reserves to himself the jus primæ noctis[2] for all the marriages in the kingdom. (De Gubernatis, Histoire des voyageurs italiens aux Indes Orientales: Livourne, 1875.)
- ↑ i.e., a legalised defilement or ravishing. Blondeau, in his Dictionnaire erotique latin-français (Liseux: 1885), translates stupratio as "a combat in which one forces a beauty to yield to one's passion……to take possession of the honour of some pretty woman……the struggle in which woman succumb with pleasure." Stupro, the verb; stuprator, the noun; and stupratus, the adjective have kindred meanings.
- ↑ An old established practice whereby newly married women are deflowered by others than their husbands, whether by priest, lord,
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