III. _Hetaïrism._--_Jus primæ noctis_--Religious hetaïrism at Babylon, in Armenia--Religious prostitution--Religious defloration--The _jus primæ noctis_ with the Nasamons, in the Balearic Isles, in ancient Peru, in Asia, etc.--The right of the chief with the Kaffirs, in New Zealand, in New Mexico, in Cochin-China, in feudal Europe--The right of religious prelibation--Religious defloration in Cambodia--The reason of the right of prelibation--The _jus primæ noctis_ confounded with the simple licence of unmarried women--Shamelessness of girls in Australia, Polynesia, America, Malaya, Abyssinia, etc.--The _indotata_ in primitive Rome--Loan and barter of women in America and elsewhere, and among the ancient Arabs--Actual promiscuity has been rare in humanity. I. _Has there been a Stage of Promiscuity?_ Having made our preliminary investigation of love, sexual unions, marriage, or what corresponds to it, and the family in the animal kingdom, we are now in a position to approach the examination of corresponding social facts in regard to man. The method of evolution requires us to begin our inquiry with the lowest forms of sexual association, and there is none lower, morally and intellectually, than promiscuity; that is to say, a social condition so gross that within a group, a horde, or a tribe, all the women belong, without rule or distinction, to all the men. In a society so bestial there is surely no room for what we call love, however grossly we may understand this sentiment. There is no choice, no preference; the sexual need is reduced to its simplest expression, and absolutely debased to the level of the nutritive needs; love is no more than a hunger or thirst of another kind; there is no longer any distinction between the man and the tatoway.