practiced on The Three Sirens.
However, all that I have outlined heretofore are relatively minor practices as compared to the customs of sex and love and marriage that were agreed upon by Tefaunni, and his tribe of forty, and Daniel Wright, on behalf of his eight. Here, the Polynesians and the progressive English had less to disagree about, and compromises were few. Wright found the sexual practices of this tribe not only unique but superior to any that he had ever learned or imagined. They suited his own philosophy in almost every way. Above all, they were practical. They worked. Since many of these ideas represented almost exactly what Wright had dreamed to introduce, little readjustment or modification was necessary. It was Courtney’s estimate that of the sexual customs practiced on The Three Sirens today, about seventy percent were predominately Polynesian in origin, and about thirty percent were dictated by Wright.
I might interject here that the present-day descendants of Tefaunni and Wright are one people, one race. For some years, Tefaunni and Wright ruled jointly. When Tefaunni died, Wright became the sole Chief. When he died at an advanced age—his son had already passed on—his eldest grandson, the product of an English and Polynesian marriage, became the new Chief. Through the years, intermarriages continued. Today, there is no division between Caucasian and Polynesian. There survive only the people of the Sirens. These people, without dissent, practice the exact system of love agreed upon by the founders more than a century and a half ago.
As to this system of love, I am sorry to say that Courtney would not elaborate on many of the current customs, but what he volunteered to tell me seemed provocative enough for any anthropological study. Some of the practices he reported are as follows:
Adolescents between the ages of fourteen and sixteen are given practical sex education. As I understand it, they learn about sexual intercourse in theory. Before graduation, they observe and participate in actual love-making. The approach, Courtney insisted, is entirely wholesome.
In adolescence, the Sirens male undergoes an incision of the penis, similar to circumcision, in order to expose the glans. When this has healed, he loses the scab by enjoying his first intercourse with a slightly older female, who guides him and teaches him sexual technique. The adolescent female, on the other hand, has her clitoris stretched over a period of years. When it is extended at least one inch, she is considered ready to be taught sexual intercourse by actual participation. This enlargement of the clitoris has no magical connotation. The motive is simply to increase pleasure. Virginity, I might add, is regarded on the Sirens as an infirmity and a defect. However, from my own observations in the Society Islands and the Austral Islands, these practices are not unfamiliar.
There is a great house on the Sirens called the Social Aid Hut. Its function is twofold. It is used by bachelors, widowers, and unattached women for courtship and love. The second function, merely hinted at, is one that I can only deduce to be more unique, even startling. It concerns some means of—I repeat Courtney’s exact words from my notes—“providing fulfillment, at all times, for married men or women who request it.” Whatever this implies, it is, apparently, not as abandoned and orgiastic as one might imagine. Courtney said this “service” of the Social Aid Hut was sensible, logical, and that there were strict rules. He would not expand upon the subject, except to remark that on The Three Sirens there were no physically repressed or unhappy men or women.
Marriages are arranged by common consent of the individuals involved. The ceremony is performed by the Chief. The groom invites the male and female guests. On entrance to the ceremony, the groom steps over his mother-in-law, who is prostrated, symbolic of his ascendency over her. After the ceremony,
However, all that I have outlined heretofore are relatively minor practices as compared to the customs of sex and love and marriage that were agreed upon by Tefaunni, and his tribe of forty, and Daniel Wright, on behalf of his eight. Here, the Polynesians and the progressive English had less to disagree about, and compromises were few. Wright found the sexual practices of this tribe not only unique but superior to any that he had ever learned or imagined. They suited his own philosophy in almost every way. Above all, they were practical. They worked. Since many of these ideas represented almost exactly what Wright had dreamed to introduce, little readjustment or modification was necessary. It was Courtney’s estimate that of the sexual customs practiced on The Three Sirens today, about seventy percent were predominately Polynesian in origin, and about thirty percent were dictated by Wright.
I might interject here that the present-day descendants of Tefaunni and Wright are one people, one race. For some years, Tefaunni and Wright ruled jointly. When Tefaunni died, Wright became the sole Chief. When he died at an advanced age—his son had already passed on—his eldest grandson, the product of an English and Polynesian marriage, became the new Chief. Through the years, intermarriages continued. Today, there is no division between Caucasian and Polynesian. There survive only the people of the Sirens. These people, without dissent, practice the exact system of love agreed upon by the founders more than a century and a half ago.
As to this system of love, I am sorry to say that Courtney would not elaborate on many of the current customs, but what he volunteered to tell me seemed provocative enough for any anthropological study. Some of the practices he reported are as follows:
Adolescents between the ages of fourteen and sixteen are given practical sex education. As I understand it, they learn about sexual intercourse in theory. Before graduation, they observe and participate in actual love-making. The approach, Courtney insisted, is entirely wholesome.
In adolescence, the Sirens male undergoes an incision of the penis, similar to circumcision, in order to expose the glans. When this has healed, he loses the scab by enjoying his first intercourse with a slightly older female, who guides him and teaches him sexual technique. The adolescent female, on the other hand, has her clitoris stretched over a period of years. When it is extended at least one inch, she is considered ready to be taught sexual intercourse by actual participation. This enlargement of the clitoris has no magical connotation. The motive is simply to increase pleasure. Virginity, I might add, is regarded on the Sirens as an infirmity and a defect. However, from my own observations in the Society Islands and the Austral Islands, these practices are not unfamiliar.
There is a great house on the Sirens called the Social Aid Hut. Its function is twofold. It is used by bachelors, widowers, and unattached women for courtship and love. The second function, merely hinted at, is one that I can only deduce to be more unique, even startling. It concerns some means of—I repeat Courtney’s exact words from my notes—“providing fulfillment, at all times, for married men or women who request it.” Whatever this implies, it is, apparently, not as abandoned and orgiastic as one might imagine. Courtney said this “service” of the Social Aid Hut was sensible, logical, and that there were strict rules. He would not expand upon the subject, except to remark that on The Three Sirens there were no physically repressed or unhappy men or women.
Marriages are arranged by common consent of the individuals involved. The ceremony is performed by the Chief. The groom invites the male and female guests. On entrance to the ceremony, the groom steps over his mother-in-law, who is prostrated, symbolic of his ascendency over her. After the ceremony,
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