late a supply of women
outside the mores of the family whose sex shall be for sale, not for
purposes of procreation but for purposes of indulgence. In the ancient
world, temple prostitution was common, the proceeds going to the god or
goddess; but the sense of pollution in the sex relation which came to be
so potent an element in the control of family life drove the prostitute
from the sanctuary to the stews and the brothel, where she lives to-day.
She has become the woman shunned, while the wife and mother who is the
centre of the family with its institutional taboos is the sacred woman,
loved and revered by men who condemn the prostitute for the very act for
which they seek her company. Such is the irrational situation which has
come to us as a heritage from the past.

Among the chief causes which have impelled women into prostitution
rather than into family life are the following: (1) Slavery; (2)
poverty; (3) inclination. These causes have been expanded and re-grouped
by specialists, but the only addition which the writer sees as necessary
in consequence of the study of taboo is the fact that the way of the
woman transgressor is peculiarly hard because of the sex taboo, the
ignorance and narrowness of good women, and the economic limitations of
all women. Ignorance of the results of entrance into a life which
usually means abandonment of hope may be a contributing cause. Boredom
with the narrowness of family life and desire for adventure are also
influences.

That sex desire leads directly to the life of the prostitute is
unlikely. The strongly sexed class comes into prostitution by the war of
irregular relationships with men to whom they have been attached, and
who have abandoned them or sold them out. Many authorities agree on the
frigidity of the prostitute. It is her protection from physical and
emotional exhaustion. This becomes evident when it is learned that these
women will receive thirty men a day, sometimes more. A certain original
lack of sensitiveness may be assumed, especially since the
investigations of prostitutes have shown a large proportion, perhaps
one-third, who are mentally inferior. It is an interesting fact that
those who are sensitive to their social isolation defend themselves by
dwelling on their social necessity. Either intuitively or by a trade
tradition, the prostitute feels that "she remains, while creeds and
civilizations rise and fall, blasted for the sins of the people." A
beautifu