same process going on in India. In some parts of
India (as at Jejuri, near Poonah) first born girls are dedicated
to Khandoba or other gods; they are married to the god and termed
_muralis_. They serve in the temple, sweep it, and wash the holy
vessels, also they dance, sing and prostitute themselves. They
are forbidden to marry, and they live in the homes of their
parents, brothers, or sisters; being consecrated to religious
service, they are untouched by degradation. Nowadays, however,
Indian "reformers," in the name of "civilization and science,"
seek to persuade the _muralis_ that they are "plunged in a career
of degradation." No doubt in time the would-be moralists will
drive the _muralis_ out of their temples and their homes, deprive
them of all self-respect, and convert them into wretched
outcasts, all in the cause of "science and civilization" (see,
e.g., an article by Mrs. Kashibai Deodhar, _The New Reformer_,
October, 1907). So it is that early reformers create for the
reformers of a later day the task of humanizing prostitution
afresh.

There can be no doubt that this more humane conception of
prostitution is to-day beginning to be realized in the actual
civilized life of Europe. Thus in writing of prostitution in
Paris, Dr. Robert Michels ("Erotische Streifzuege,"
_Mutterschutz_, 1906, Heft 9, p. 368) remarks: "While in Germany
the prostitute is generally considered as an 'outcast' creature,
and treated accordingly, an instrument of masculine lust to be
used and thrown away, and whom one would under no circumstances
recognize in public, in France the prostitute plays in many
respects the part which once give significance and fame to the
_hetairae_ of Athens." And after describing the consideration and
respect which the Parisian prostitute is often able to require of
her friends, and the non-sexual relation of comradeship which she
can enter into with other men, the writer continues: "A girl who
certainly yields herself for money, but by no means for the first
comer's money, and who, in addition to her 'business friends,'
feels the need of, so to say, non-sexual companions with whom she
can associate in a free comrade-like way, and by whom she is
treated and valued as a free human being, is not wholly lost for
the moral worth of humanity." All prostitution is bad