The Way of a Virgin/Virginity and its Traditions

VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS

IN devoting a volume to the romance and folklore of Virginity, it may not be inappropriate first to examine the psychology of a word and a quality as magical as they are misused.

What is virginity? Is it the possession intact of that delicate piece of membrane, the poets' 'flos virginitatis,' or is it some indescribable, intangible attribute in on sense dependent on physical perfection? Does it imply abstention from and ignorance of all sexual pleasures, or must it be a chastity which falls little short of stupid, even criminal, innocence?

To us moderns, blessed (or cursed) with a smattering of science, woman is virginal just as long as we know or believe her to be, physical qualities notwithstanding. By the poet of the past, the romanticist, the mediaeval lover, and the ignorant, physical as well as spiritual proofs were probably required or expected. To them, virginity was something tangible; to us it is not.

Nor is the reason far to seek. For while Havelock Ellis, the greatest authority on sexual psychology the world has known, describes the hymen as having acquired in human estimation a spiritual value which has made it far more than a part of the feminine body,…… "something that gives woman all her worth and dignity,…… her market value," he goes on to point out that the presence or absence of the hymen is no real test of virginity.

"There are many ways," he writes, (Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Philadelphia, 1914: vol. 5: Erotic Symbolism), "in which the hymen may be destroyed apart from coitus. …… On the other hand, integrity of the hymen is no proof of virginity, apart from the obvious fact that there may be intercourse without penetration. …… The hymen may be of a yielding or folding type, so that complete penetration may take place and yet the hymen be afterwards found unruptured. It occasionally happens that the hymen is found intact at the end of pregnancy."^[1]

And while the foregoing is the exception rather than the rule, it goes far to prove the fallibility of the physical, tangible test.

To most of us, virginity is a quality supposedly prized at all times and by all races. This is far from the case. As Havelock Ellis points out, (op. cit.), virginity is not usually of any value among peoples who are entirely primitive. "Indeed, even in the classic civilisation which we inherit," he writes, "it is easy to show that the virgin and the admiration for virginity are of late growth; the virgin goddesses were not originally virgins in our modern sense. Diana was the many-breasted patroness of childbirth before she became the chaste and solitary huntress, for the earliest distinction would appear to have been simply between the woman who was attached to a man and the woman who owed an earlier rule of freedom and independence; it was a later notion to suppose that the latter women were debarred from sexual intercourse."

A French Army Surgeon, Dr. Jacobus X——, (Untrodden Fields of Anthropology: Charles Carrington: Paris, 1898), has some interesting remarks on the subject, and we offer no apology for reproducing them at length. Writing on the "Unimportance of the signs of virginity in the negress," he says:—

"The Negroes of Senegal do not attach, as the Arabs do, considerable importance to the presence of the real signs of virginity in young girls.…… The non-existence of the material proofs of virginity seldom give rise to any complaint on the part of the husband. ……Moreover, the size of the virile member of the Negro^[2] renders it difficult for him to detect any trick. The black bride, on the wedding night, shows herself in the art of simulating the struggles of an expiring virginity, and it is considered good taste for the girls to require almost to be raped. The least innocent young women are often the most clever at this game.

"Thus, throughout nearly all Senegal, the European, who has a taste for maindenheads, can easily be satisfied, provided he is willing to pay the price.^[3] At St. Louis women of ill-fame procure young girls, who bear the significant name of the 'unpierced,'^[4] and vary from eight or nine years to the nubile age. It is even easier to obtain a young girl before she is nubile than afterwards, on account of the certainty of her not bearing any children. The price is within the range of all purses, according to quality, and you can have a negro girl, warranted 'unpierced' (belonging to the category of domestic slaves), for the modest sum of from eight to sixteen shillings. Of course, the respectable matron pockets half this sum for her honorarium. ……

"……The 'unpierced' soon lose their right to the title when they have to do with a Toubab, but, on account of the size of their genital parts, the loss of their maidenhead is not such a serious affair for them as it would be for a little French girl who was not yet nubile. I have never remarked in a little negress, who had been deflowered by a White, the valvular inflammation, which, with us, is noticed as the result of premature copulation before the parts are sufficiently developed. ……If the reader will remember that the European, who is below the average dimensions in regard to his penis, is like a little boy in proportion to the negress of ten or twelve years old, it is not difficult to imagine that the negress he has deflowered can entirely take in the yard of the White, the dimensions of which are much less than that of the adult black.

"……When the girl has to do later with a negro husband, an astringent lotion will render the bride a pseudo-virgin. The deceived husband, not having the anatomical knowledge necessary to assure himself of the real existence of the signs of virginity, feels a difficulty in copulating, and is far from suspecting any trick.^[5]

"Does not much the same kind of thing prevail also in Europe? How many girls who have been deflowered get married without their husband ever suspecting anything, although he has not the same physical disadvantages that the black has to prevent his seeing through the trick? Is it to this amorous blindness that the Greeks and Romans alluded when they represented Cupid with a bandage over his eyes? One is almost tempted to believe it.

"……In opposition to those who exact the virginity of the bride, there are others who attach no importance whatever to it. ……The ancient Egyptians used to make an incision in the hymen previous to marriage, and St. Athanasius relates that among the Phoenicians a slave of the bridegroom was charged by him to deflower the bride.^[6] The Caraib Indians attached no value to virginity, and only the daughters of the higher classes were shut up during two years previous to marriage.

"It appears that among the Chibcha Indians in Central America virginity is not at all esteemed; it was considered to be a proof that the maiden had never been able to inspire love.

"In ancient Peru the old maids were the objects of high esteem. There were sacred virgins called 'Wives of the Sun,' somewhat similar to the Roman vestals.^[7] (The nuns of the present day, do they not style themselves the 'Spouses of Christ'?). They made a vow of perpetual chastity. ……It is also said they were buried alive when they happened to break their vow of chastity, unless indeed they could prove having conceived, not from a man, but from the sun.

"Several authors worthy of credence assure us that these vestals were guarded by eunuchs. The temple at Cuzco had one thousand virgins, that of Caranqua two hundred. It would appear, however, that the virginity of these vestals was not so very sacred after all, for the Inca Kings used to choose from among them concubines for themselves or for their principal vassals and favourite friends.

"Marco Polo narrates how young girls were exposed by their mothers on the public highways in order that travellers might freely make use of them.^[8] A young girl was expected to have at least twenty presents earned by such prostitutions before she could hope to find a husband. This did not prevent them from being very virtuous after marriage, nor their virtue from being much appreciated.^[9]

"Waitz assures us that in several countries of Africa a young girl is preferred for wife when she has made herself remarked by several amours and by much fecundity. (C.f. Havelock Ellis, op. cit., vol. 6: 'Equally unsound is the notion that the virgin bride brings her husband at marriage an important capital which is consumed in the first act of intercourse and can never be recovered. That is a notion which has survived into civilisation, but it belongs to barbarism and not to civilisation. So far as it has any validity it lies within a sphere of erotic perversity which cannot be taken into consideration in an estimation of moral values. For most men, however, in any case, whether they realise it or not, the woman who has been initiated into the mysteries of love has a higher erotic value than the virgin,^[10] and there need be no anxiety on this ground concerning the wife who has lost her virginity.')

"It was impossible," continues Dr. Jacobus X——, "ever to find the signs of virginity among the Machacura women in Brazil, and Feldner explains the reason thus:—

"'Among them a virgin is never to be found, for this reason: that the mother from her daughter's tenderest years endeavours with the utmost care to remove all tightness of the vagina and obstacle therein. With this end in view, the leaf of a tree folded in the shape of a funnel is held in the right hand, then while the index finger is introduced into the genital parts and worked to and fro, warm water is admitted by means of the funnel.' (Journey Across Brazil, 1828).

"Among the Sakalaves in Madagascar the young girls deflower themselves, when the parents have not previously seen to this necessary preparation for marriage.

"Among the Balanti of Senegambia, one of the most degraded races in Africa, the girls cannot find a husband until they have been deflowered by their King, who often exacts costly presents from his female subjects for putting them in condition to be able to marry.

"Barth, (1856), in describing Adamad, says that the chief of the Bagoli used to lie the first night with the daughters of the Fulba, a people under his sway. Similar facts are related of the aborigines of Brazil and of the Kinipeto Esquimaux.

"Demosthenes informs us that there was a celebrated Greek hetaira, named Mæra, who had seven slaves whom she called her daughters, so that being supposed to be free a higher price was oaid for their favours. She sold their virginity five or six times over, and ended by selling the whole lot together.

"The god Mutinus, Mutunus or Tutunus of ancient Rome used to have the new brides come and sit upon his knees, as if to offer him their virginity. St. Augustine says: 'In the celebration of nuptials the newly wed bride used to be bidden sit on the shaft of Priapus.' Lactantius gives more precise details: 'And Mutunus, in whose shameful lap brides sit, in order that the god may appear to have gathered the first-fruits of their virginity.' It appears, however, that this offering was not merely symbolical, for when they had become wives, they used to return to the favourite deity to pray for fecundity.^[11]

"Arnobius also asks: 'Is it Tutunus, on whose huge organs and bristling tool you think it an auspicious and desirable thing that your matrons should be mounted?'

"Pertunda was another hermaphrodite divinity that St. Augustine maliciously proposed rather to name the Deus Uretundus (who strikes first); it was carried on to the nuptial bed to aid the bridegroom: 'Pertunda stands there ready in the bedchamber for the aid of husbands excavating the virgin pit.' (Arnobius.)

"The Kondadgis (Ceylon), the Cambodgians, and other peoples charged their priests with the defloration of their brides.

"Jager communicated to the Berlin Anthropological Society a passage from Gemelli Cancri, which mentions a stupatrio officials^[12] 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^[13] for all the marriages in the kingdom. (De Gubernatis, Histoire des voyageurs italiens aux Indes Orientales: Livourne, 1875.)

"Warthema says that the King of Calicut, when he took a wife, chose the most worthy and learned Brahmin to deflower the maiden; for this service he received from 400 to 500 crowns. At Tenasserim fathers used to beg of their daughters to allow themselves to be deflowered by Christians or Mohammedans.

"Pascal de Andagoya, who visited Nicaragua between 1514 and 1522, says that it was usual for a grand-priest to lie during the first night with the bride, and Oviedo, (1535), speaking of the Acovacks and other American nations, relates that the wife, in order that the marriage should be happy, passed the first nuptial night with the priest or jiache, and Gomara, (1551), relates the same thing of the inhabitants of Cumana.

"In Europe, young girls who are not very virtuous, and who have studied all the various forms of flirtation, are most generally passed off as virgins when they marry. Even when it does not really exist, there are many ways by which a virginity—which perhaps has been sold over and over again by expert and clever procuresses—can be simulated. A little time before going to the nuptial bed, the girl inserts into her vagina a few drops of pigeon's blood; or in some cases she selects for her wedding day the last day of menstruation. A sponge, skillfully placed, allows the blood to flow at the moment of the catastrophe, when a sudden 'Oh!' announces to the unsuspecting husband that the temple has been violated for the first time, and that the veil of the sanctum sanctorum has really been rent by him. Add also to these methods injections so astringent that, at the required time, they will give to a prostitute, whose gap has been widened by a thousand customers, a tightness greater than that of a real virgin."

The more one examines the question, the more one is convinced that virginity or chastity has come to be regarded as a spiritual and moral asset only in civilised, or comparatively civilised, society. "In considering the moral quality of chastitiy among savages," writes Havelock Ellis (Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. 6, p. 147), "we must carefully separate that chastity which among semiprimitive peoples is exclusively imposed upon women. This has no moral quality whatever, for it is not exercised as a useful discipline, but merely enforced in order to heigthen the economic and erotic value of women.

"Many authorities believe that the regard for women as property furnishes the true reason for the widespread insistence on virginity in brides. Thus A. B. Ellis, speaking of the West Coast of Africa (Yoruha Speaking Peoples, pp. 183 et seq.), says that girls of good class are bethroded as mere children, and are carefully guarded from men, while girls of lower class are seldom bethroded, and may lead any life they choose."

Virginity in woman, it seems, has been set on a pedestal unsupported by history, science, or investigation. It is obviously the outcome of man's desire, when he buys or acquires, to obtain unsoiled goods. Comes a time, however, when the value of these so-called unsoiled goods grows questionable. Something virgin, in terms of common sense, is not necessarily something valuable; here enters the thinking, and, ultimately, the erotic, element. Let a man fall to asking why he demands virginity, and he will speedily begin to realise that it is the last thing he requires. Virginity spells ignorance, awkwardness and obstacles; maturity means understanding and co-operation. Thus, by easy stages, we reach the conclusion, mentioned by Havelock Ellis and quoted above, that for most men, whether they realise it or not, the love-wise woman has a greater erotic value than the virgin.^[14]

Quoting Westermarck (History of Human Marriage), he goes on to refer to the fact that the seduction of an unmarried girl "is chiefly, if not exclusively, regarded as an offence against the parents or family of the girl," and there is no indication that it is ever held by savages that any wrong has been done to the woman herself.

"Westermarck realises at the same time," adds Havelock Ellis, "that the preference given to virgins has also a biological basis in the instinctive masculine feeling of jealousy in regard to women who have had intercouse with other men, and especially in the erotic charm for men of the emotional state of shyness which accompanies virginity."

Here, in all probability, are the most powerful reasons for the value placed on virginity; each reason, too, is highly practical. Who among us truly wants to share his most treasured possession? And the shy charm of virginity 'neath the attack of the amorous lover is as undeniable as it is indescribable. Hence the virgin's lure for the old and worn-out roué, who finds in her shrinking reluctance a stimulant to his erotic prowess which sympathy, boldness, even lewdness, have no power to furnish. That quaint old book, "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," (London, 1780), gives a typical account of the attempt and failure of an aged rake to ravish the then virginal heroine of the story.^[15] At certain times and with certain peoples the virgin maid has been forced about with all manner of safeguards up to the very hour of her marriage; but have these and other peoples ever troubled to preserve the virginity of their daughters as they were at pains to guard the chastitiy of their wives? What nation ever inflicted that ghastly contrivance, the Girdle of Chastitiy, upon its virgin daughters? This bar to erotic pleasure was reserved exclusively for the potentially froward wife. Originating in the woollen band worn by the Spartan virgin^[16]—a garment removed for the first time by the husband on the wedding night—these Girdles of Chastity, with their padlocks and keys, were undoubtedly in use in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and in use for an unmistakable purpose. "The first to employ this apparatus," says Dr. Jacobus X—— (Ethnology of the Sixth Sense: Charles Carrington: Paris, 1899), "was Francis of Tarrara, Provost of Padua in the fourteenth century. It was a belt having a central piece made of ivory, with a barbed narrow slit down the middle, which was passed between the legs and fixed there by lock and key. A specimen of this safety apparatus is to be seen actually at the Musee de Cluny in Paris."

Dr. Caufeynon, the great authority on the subject, believes, however, that these girdles only date from the Renaissance.^[17] In his remarkable little work, La Ceinture de Chastete (Paris, 1904), which contains numerous engravings and photographic designs, he gives an illustration of the specimen in the Musee de Cluy. Quoting Brantome (Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies), he adds:

"In the time of Henry the king there lived an ironmonger who brought to the fair of St. Germain a dozen of certain machines to bridle the parts of women; they were fashioned of iron and went round like a girdle, and went below and were closed with a key. So cleverly were they fashioned that it was not possible for the women, when once bridled, to arrive at the sweet pleasure, there being but a few small holes in it for pissing.

"'Tis said there were five or six jealous husbands, who bought these machines and bridled their wives with them in such fashion that they might well have said 'Farewell, happy time,' had there not been one who bethought her of applying to a locksmith very skilled in his art, to whom she showed the machine, her own, her husband being then out in the fields; and he applied his mind so well to the matter that he made for her a false key, with which the lady opened or closed the machine at any time and when she willed.

"The husband never discovered aught to say on the matter; and the lady gave herself up to her own good pleasure, despite her foolish, jealous, cuckold husband, being ever able to live in the freedom of cuckoldom. But the wicked locksmith who fashioned the false key tasted of it all! and he did well, so they say, for he was the first to taste of it.

"They say, too, that there were many gallant and honest gentlemen of the court who threatened that ironmonger with death did he ever presume to carry about such merchandise; so much so that he was afraid and returned no more and threw away all the rest, and no more heard of. Wherein he was wise, for it were enough to lose half the world, for want of any body to people it, through such bridles, clasps and fastenings of nature abominable and detestable and enemies to human multiplication."

The troubadour Guillaume de Machault speaks of a key given to him by Agnes of Navarre; this key was obviosuly intended to unlock a girdle of chastity. Nicolas Chorier, in his erotic Dialogues of Luisa Sigea (Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1890), mentions the apparatus. Although the existence of such girdles has often been denied, "the presence of many undoubted speciments in several of the most important museums of Europe," says Dr. Jacobus X—— (Ethnology of the Sitxth Sense), "places their authenticity beyond all doubt. This custom existed more particularly during the time of the Crusades,…… but a very curious instance is mentioned as having occurred as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, for it is recorded that the advocate Feydeau pleaded before the supreme court of Montpellier on behalf of a woman who accused her husband of making her undergo this shameful treatment (Petition against the introduction of padlocks or girdles of chastity, Montpellier, 1750.)"

All this only goes to show that virginity and chastity are two very different things, and that the latter was obviously of more account than the former in the eyes of mediæval man. Much the same obtains to-day. To a certain extent we seek to preserve the virginity of our daughters; but is there any limit to the precautions with which a jealous husband will fence about his wife? In short, virginity concerns alone her who loses it; is any man's for the taking. Chastity is another person's property.

This slight survey of virginity would be incomplete without a reference to the operation of infibulation^[18]—the artificial adhesion of the labia majora by means of a ring or stitches with a view to the prevention of sexual intercourse. Kisch, (The Sexual Life of Woman: translated by M. Eden Paul: London: Wm. Heinemann), quotes the authority of Ploss-Bartels for saying that this operation is practised by many peoples, among them the Bedschas, the Gallas, the Somalis, the inhabitants of Harrar, at Massaua, etc.

"The purpose of this practise," he adds, "is to preserve the chastity of the girls until marriage, when the reverse operative procedure is undertaken. It the husband goes away on a journey, in many cases the operation of infibulation is once more performed upon his wifes. Slave-dealers also make use of this operation so as to prevent their slaves from becoming pregnant. It is reported, however, that the operation does not invariably produce the desired effect."

Nothing we have said or quoted, however, can alter the fact that virginity has been and will always be a certain asset in civilised or semi-civilised communities. There is a romance attached to the term which neither cynicism nor materialism can kill. Incidentally, there is a strong business side to the question. Who, as we said before, wants to feel that his dearest possession has been shared by others? Who, in more modern parlance, wants damaged goods?

While life lasts, the virgin maid will lure the normal lover, common sense and cold facts notwithstanding. What the poet sang and the amorous swain coveted in those by-gone times of pomp and paganism, in the days of chivalry, and even in that dreary early Victorian era, will be sung and coveted centuries hence. Since, new discoveries, new theories, new ideals, new conditions, cannot oust human nature, our undeniable birthright. The sanctity and value of virginity are traditions; and, as Havelock Ellis says, in that singularly beautiful postscript to his Studies, "there can be no world without traditions; neither can there be any life without movement. As Heracleitus knew at the outset of modern philosophy, we cannot bathe twice in the same stream, though, as we know today, the stream still flows in an unending circle. There is never a moment when the new dawn is not breaking over the earth, and never a moment when the sunset ceases to die. It is well to greet serenely even the first glimmer of the dawn when we see it, not hastening toward it with undue speed, nor leaving the sunset without gratitude for the dying light that once was dawn.

"In the moral world we are ourselves the light-bearers, and the cosmic process is in us made flesh. For a brief space it is granted to us, if we will, to enlighten the darkness that surrounds our path. As in the ancient torch-race, which seemed to Lucretius to be the symbol of all life, we press forward torch in hand along the course. Soon from behind comes the runner who will outpace us. All our skill lies in giving into his hand the living torch, bright and unflickering, as we ourselves disappear in the darkness."

Beautiful words, and fitting monument to a man who gave thirty years of his life to the production of a work that will live for all time. Hardly applicable to our present theme some, perhaps, will say. We take leave to differ. In the relations between man and woman all life is epitomised. Each bears the torch, and the race they run is the life they lead. To almost all is granted the chance to hand on the torch in living, breathing prototype.

Let us recognize new conditions, new ideas; let us welcome, examine and weigh them, that none may say we do not 'greet serenely the dawn.' But let us also remember that theory cannot oust fact, nor materialism human nature.

Down the ages man has altered in custom and habit, but in his spiritual essence not at all. Save for local and racial differences, humanity has shared the same passions of pain, sorrow, happiness, anger, laughter and lust throughout all time. Human nature alone does not change; our birthright is immutable. Human nature ever has, and ever will, set store by virginity. It has become a tradition. And without traditions, as the great psychologist has truly told us, there is no world.

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1. Schuring, in the 17th century, notes a case of this kind. C.f. his Gynæcologia, where he speaks of a girl being pregnant without losing her virginity. Pide note, p. 100 post, where futrher details of the life and works of this erudite physician will be found.
2. Sir Richard Burton, (The Thousand Nights and a Night}, describes how he measured in Somaliland a negro's penis, which, when quiescent, was six inches long; this organ, however, would not increase proportionately when in erection.
3. A celebrated Parisian courtesan used to boast, according to Mantegazza, that she had "sold her virginity" on 82 different occasions! Vide Curious Bypaths of History: Carrington: Paris, 1898, for further details on this subject.—Note by Dr. Jacobus X——.
4. C.f. The Thousand Nights and a Night, (Sir Richard F. Burton; the privately printed and uncastrated editions), where the expression is common. "……He found her a pearl unpierced." Again: "……went in unto the Princess and found her jewel which had been hidden, an union pearl unthridden, and a filly that none but he had ridden……" Compare, also, the French erotic slang percer (to pierce), signifying the act of sexual intercourse. (Farmer: Slang and its Analogues; p. 25, vol. 6; Vocabula Amatoria, etc.)
5. "The Chinese……have discovered a way of forming a new virginity when by some accident that objecct has gone astray. The method consists in astringent lotions applied to the parts, the effect of which so draws them together that a certain amount of vigour is required in order to pass through, the husband—on a nuptial night—being convinced that he has overcome the usual barrier. To make the illusion more complete, a leech-bite is made just inside the critical part, and the little wound is plugged with a minute pellet of vegetable tinder, with the result that the effort made by the husband to overcome the difficulty displaces the pellet and a slight flow of blood ensues." (Curious Bypaths of History, op. cit. sup.) That this method is by no means peculiar to the Chinese is instanced by Brantome in his Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies (Paris: Carrington, 1901: first English translation), where the genial old soldier-philosopher says:— "How clever these docctors be! for they do give women remedies to make them appear virgin and intact as they were opher says: "How clever these doctors be! for they do give wo Take leeches and apply to the privy parts, getting them to drain and suck the blood in that region. Now the leeches, in sucking, do engender and leave behind little blebs or blisters full of blood. Then when the gallant bridegroom cometh on his marriage night to give assault, he doth burst these same blisters and the blood discharging from them; the thing is all bathed in gore, to the great satisfaction of both the twain; for so 'the honour of the citadel is saved.'"
6. "That this eagerness after virginity is not an original lust, I must, indeed, prove from the opinion of a certain remote people, who esteem the taking of a maidenhead as a laborious and illiberal practice, which they delegate to men hired for that purpose, ere themselves condescend to lie with their wives; who are returned with disgrace to their friends, if it be discovered that they have brought their virginity with them."—The Battles of Venus: The Hague, 1760, quoted by Pisanus Fraxi in his Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Vide also post in this Study.
7. "Now as to these vows of virginity, Heliogabalus did promulgate a law to the effect that no Roman maid, not even a Vestal Virgin, was bound to perpetuate virginity, saying how that the female sex was over weak for women to be bound to a pact they could never be sure of keeping." (Brantome: Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies.) The author of this edict was not without a knowledge of sexual psychology, for we have ample evidense that some of the Vestals failed in their duty, which was, nominally, to guard the sacred fire and the Holy Things of Rome. "Far up by Porta Pia," says F. Marion Crawford (Ave Roma Immortalis: London, 1903), "over against the new Treasury, under a modern street, lie the bones of guilty Vestals, buried living, each in a little vault two fathoms deep, with the small dish and crust and the earthen lamp that soon flickered out in the close, damp air." Vestal Virgins had many privileges denied to other Roman women; they were free for life; they had a right to be present at the Emperor's games; and they were treated with marked respect by the highest in the land. That the privileges of virginity did not necessarily make for the owner's happiness is instanced by Brantome's grim story. "Maids and virgins," he writes (Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies), "would seem in old days at Rome to have been highly honoured and privileged, so much so that the law had no jurisdiction over them to sentence them to death. Hence the story we read of a Roman Senator in the time of the Triumvirate, which was condemned to die among other victims of the Proscription, and not he alone, but all the offspring of his loins. So when a daughter of his house did appear on the scaffold, a very fair and lovely girl, but unripe years and yet a virgin, 'twas needful for the executioner to deflower her himself and take her maidenhead on the scaffold, and only then when she was so polluted, could he ply his knife upon her. The Emperor Tiberius did delight in having fair virgins thus publicly deflowered, and then put to death, a right villainous piece of cruelty, pardy!"
8. C.f. Herodotus, who tells us that in the fifth century before Christ every woman, once in her life, had to come to the temple of Mylitta, the Babylonian Venus, and yield herself to the first stranger who threw a coin in her lap, in worship of the goddess. The money could not be refused, however small the amount, but it was given as an offertory to the temple, and the woman, having followed the man and thus made oblation to Mylitta, returned home and lived chastely ever afterwards. (Havelock Ellis: Studies in the Psychology of Sex: vol. 6: Sex in Relation to Society.) Havelock Ellis has quoted Herodotus in relation to prostitution, holding that its origin is to be found primarily in religious custom. In our opinion, the practice also merits inclusion in a catalogue of virginal folk-lore, and we are further justified in our view by the statement that the woman who so yielded herself lived chastely ever afterwards.
9. "In old times we read of a ccustom in the isle of Cyprus, which 'tis said the kindly goddess Venus, the patroness of that land, did introduce. This was that the maids of that island should go forth and wander along the banks, shores and cliffs of the sea, for to earn their marriage portions by the generous giving of their bodies to mariners, sailors and seafarers along that coast. These would put in to shore on purpose, very often indeed turning from their straight course by compass to land there; and so taking their pleasant refreshment with them, would pay handsomely, and presently hie them away again to sea, for their part only too sorry to leave such good entertainment behind. Thus would these fair maids win their marriage dowers, some more, some less, some high, some low, some grand, some lowely, according to the beauty, gifts and carnal attractions of each damsel." (Brantome: Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies.)
10. "I am not surprised if the Phœnicians, according to St. Athanasius, obliged their daughters, by severe laws, to suffer themselves before marriage to be deflowered by valets, or also that the Armenians, as Strabo relates, sacrificed their daughters in the temple of the Goddess Anaitis, with the object of being eased of their maidenheads, so as to be able afterwards to find advantageous marriages suited to their condition; for one cannot describe what exhaustion and what sufferings a man has to undergo in his first action, at all events if the girl be narrow.……It is far sweeter to have connection with a woman accustomed to the pleasures of love locksmith to ease the wards of a new lock he brings us, to save us the trouble we might have the first day, so had the nations of whom we spoke good reason for establishing such laws." (Nicolas Venette: La Generation de L'Amour Conjugal: Paris, 1751.)
11. "According to Festus, Mutinus is a god differing wholly from Priapus, having a public sanctuary at Rome, where the statue was placed sitting with penis erect. Newly mated girls were placed in his lap, before being led away to their husbands, so that the deity might appear to have foretasted their virginity, this being supposed to render the bride fruitful." (Priapeia: Cosmopoli, 1890.) Schurig (Gynæcologia: op. cit. sup.) instances the Indian custom of deflowering young brides by means of an enormous priapus in the temples.
12. 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.
13. An old established practice whereby newly married women are deflowered by others than their husbands, whether by priest, lord, or stranger. To discuss this relic of feudalism would be beyond the scope of a note; it is summed up briefly in the idea that the lord of a domain was entitled to exact tribute from his subjects in the form of intercourse with every bride on the first night of her marriage. Our readers are referred to Dr. Karl Schmidt's Jus PrimK Noctis (The Law of the First Night), the most comprehensive treatise on the subject.
14. Brantome, of course, has some pertinent remarks on the subject. In his Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies, he devotes the seventh Discourse to the following topic: Concerning married women, widows and maids,—to wit, which of these same be better than other to love. "One day." writes the genial philosopher, "when I was at the Court of Spain at Madrid, and conversing with a very honourable lady……she did chance to ask me this question following:— 'Which of the three had the greater heat of love: widow, wife or maid?' After myself had told her mine opinion she did in turn give me hers in some such terms as these: 'That albeit maids, with all that heat of blood that is theirs, be right well disposed to love, yet do they not love so well as wives and widows. This is because of the great experience of the business the latter have, and the obvious fact that supposing a man born blind……he can never desire the gift of sight so strongly as he that has sweetly enjoyed the same a while and then been deprived of it.'" Later, quoting Boccaccio, Brantome also says:— "The widow is more painstaking of the pleasure of love an hundred fold than the virgin, seeing the latter is all for dearly guarding her precious virginity and maidenhead. Further, virgins be naturally timid, and above all in this matter, awkward in inept to find the sweet in such encounters. But this is not so with the widow, who is already well practised, bold and ready in this art, having long ago bestowed and given away what the virgin doth make so much ado about giving. ……Besides all this, the maid doth dread this first assault of her viginity,……whereas widows have no such fear, but do submit themselves very sweetly and gently, even when the assailant be of the roughest."
15. We can supplement these remarks by a further quotation from that curious work already noticed, The Battles of Venus, wherein we read: "This lust, then, after the untouched morsel, I take not to be an original dictate of nature; but consequently to result from much experience with women, which has been demonstrated to lead to novelty of wishes from fastidious impotence.……Yet, in truth, I esteem the fruition of a virgin to be, with respect both to the mind and body of the enjoyer, the highest aggravation of sensual delight. In the first place, his fancy is heated with the prospect of enjoying a woman, after whom he has perhaps long sighed and has been in pursuit, who he thinks has never before been in bed with a man, (in whose arms never before has man laid), and in triumphing in the first sight of her virgin charms. This precious operation, then, of fancy, has been shown in the highest degree to prepare the body for enjoyment Secondly, his body perceives, in that of a virgin, the cause of the greatest aggravation of delight. I mean not only in the coyness and resistance which she makes to his efforts, but when he is on the point of accomplishing them: when arrived, as the poet sings, 'on the brink of giddy rapture,' when in pity to a tender virgin's sufferings, he is intreated not to break fiercely in, but to spare 'fierce dilaceration and dire pangs.' The resistance which the small and as yet unopened, mouth of bliss makes to his eager endeavours, serves only, and that on a physical principle, to strengthen the instrument of his attack, and concurs, with the instigation of his ardent fancy, to reinforce his efforts, to unite all the co-operative powers of enjoyment, and to produce an emission copious, rapid, and transporting……'In this case, part of the delight arises from considering that ……you feel the convulsive wrigglings of the chaste nymph you so long adored……'" Our acknowledgements are again due to Pisanus Fraxi, from whose Index Librorum Prohibitorum our extract is taken. The author of The Battles of Venus, it need hardly be said, is in no sense an authority; his work, indeed, is pornographic rather than artistic; at the same time, it is impossible to ignore his flashes of insight into a question which has exercised the minds of the greatest psychologists.
16. Brantome, apparently, had a poor opinion of Spartan virginity. "What kind of virtue was it?" he asks. (Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies.) "Why! on their solemn feast-days the Spartan maids were used to sing and dance in public stark naked with the lads, and even wrestle in the open market place, the which however was done in all honesty and good faith, so History saith. But what sort of honesty and purity was this, we may well ask, to look on at these pretty maids so performing publicly? Honesty was it never a whit, but pleasure in the sight of them, and especially of their bodily movements and dancing postures, and above all in their wrestling; and chiefest of all when they came to fall one atop of the other, as they say in Latin: 'She underneath, he atop; he underneath, she atop.' You will never persuade me 'twas all honesty and purity herein with these Spartan maidens. I ween there is never chastity so chaste that would not have been shaken thereby, or that, so making in public and by day these feint assaults, they did not presently in privity and by night and on assignation proceed to greater combats and night attacks."
17. Havelock Ellis, op. cit., vol.6: Sex in Relation to Society., p. 163.
18. C.f. the Latin infibulare=to clasp, buckle, or button together. (Smith's Latin-English dictionary.) The noun fibula can be translated: (1) a clasp, bcukle, pin, latchet, brace; (2) a surgical instrument for drawing together the edges of gaping wound; (3) a ring drawn through the prepuce to prevent copulation. Celsus, Martial and Juvenal use the word in this sense. "The ancient Romans prevented actors from copulating, with the object of preserving their voices. Martial speaks of singers who sometimes broke the ring, and whom it was necessary to bring back again to the blacksmith." (Jacobus X——, op. cit.)