logical Expedition_, vol. v, p. 275),
there is no complete continence before marriage, but neither is
there any unbridled license.

The example of Tahiti is instructive as regards the prevalence of
chastity among peoples of what we generally consider low grades
of civilization. Tahiti, according to all who have visited it,
from the earliest explorers down to that distinguished American
surgeon, the late Dr. Nicholas Senn, is an island possessing
qualities of natural beauty and climatic excellence, which it is
impossible to rate too highly. "I seemed to be transported into
the garden of Eden," said Bougainville in 1768. But, mainly under
the influence of the early English missionaries who held ideas of
theoretical morality totally alien to those of the inhabitants of
the islands, the Tahitians have become the stock example of a
population given over to licentiousness and all its awful
results. Thus, in his valuable _Polynesian Researches_ (second
edition, 1832, vol. i, Ch. IX) William Ellis says that the
Tahitians practiced "the worst pollutions of which it was
possible for man to be guilty," though not specifying them. When,
however, we carefully examine the narratives of the early
visitors to Tahiti, before the population became contaminated by
contact with Europeans, it becomes clear that this view needs
serious modification. "The great plenty of good and nourishing
food," wrote an early explorer, J.R. Forster (_Observations Made
on a Voyage Round the World_, 1778, pp. 231, 409, 422), "together
with the fine climate, the beauty and unreserved behavior of
their females, invite them powerfully to the enjoyments and
pleasures of love. They begin very early to abandon themselves to
the most libidinous scenes. Their songs, their dances, and
dramatic performances, breathe a spirit of luxury." Yet he is
over and over again impelled to set down facts which bear
testimony to the virtues of these people. Though rather
effeminate in build, they are athletic, he says. Moreover, in
their wars they fight with great bravery and valor. They are, for
the rest, hospitable. He remarks that they treat their married
women with great respect, and that women generally are nearly the
equals of men, both in intelligence and in social position; he
gives a charming description of the women. "In sho