Note K — Chapter II · PHALLIC WORSHIP.

Masculine hetarism is still in vogue among many primitive peoples, and is distinctly a religious rite. “The Kanats of New Caledonia frequently assemble at night in a cabin to give themselves up to this kind of debauchery… In the whole of America, from north to south, similar customs have existed or still exist.” Letourneau: The Evolution of Marriage, p. 62. The same author says: “It was also a widely spread custom throughout Polynesia, and even a special deity presided over it. The Southern Californians did the same, and the Spanish missionaries, on their arrival in the country, found men dressed as women and assuming their part. They were trained to this from youth, and often publicly married to the chiefs. Nero was evidently a mere plagiarist. The existence of analogous customs has been proved against the Guyacurus of La Plata, the natives of the Isthmus of Darien, the tribes of Louisiana, and the ancient Illinois.”