Among the natives of Rotuma, before the missionaries changed the custom, while sexual intercourse before marriage was comparatively common, grose prostitution and adultery were unknown; the Maoris were so chaste that, while a chief might honor a friend by loaning him his wife, it would be extremely difficult and dangerous to attempt corrupting her in private;3 and among the Papuans, illicit sexual excess is uncommon, and restrained by various tribal regulations.

The sexual impulse among the Belendas is only very slightly developed, the husband having intercourse with his wife not oftener than three times a month; and Skeat tells us that the Malays preserve the strictest chastity in their stockades during war-time, under conviction that the bullets and spears will lose their power if sexual intercourse be indulged in.4