it is especially recognized in the baths which abound in Constantinople and are often open all night.  The attendants at these baths are youths who scarcely need an invitation to induce them to gratify the client in this respect, the gratification usually consisting in masturbation, mutual or one-sided, as desired.  The practice, though little spoken of, is carried on almost openly, and blackmailing is said to be unknown.[23] In the New Turkey, however, it is stated by Adler Bey that homosexual prostitution has almost disappeared.[24]

There is abundant evidence to show that homosexual practices exist and have long existed in most parts of the world outside Europe, when subserving no obvious social or moral end.  How far they are associated with congenital inversion is usually very doubtful.  In China, for instance, it seems that there are special houses devoted to male prostitution, though less numerous than the houses devoted to females, for homosexuality cannot be considered common in China (its prevalence among Chinese abroad being due to the absence of women) and it is chiefly found in the north.[25] When a rich man gives a feast he sends for women to cheer the repast by music and song, and for boys to serve at table and to entertain the guests by their lively conversation.  The boys have been carefully brought up for this occupation, receiving an excellent education, and their mental qualities are even more highly valued than their physical attractiveness.  The women are less carefully brought up and less esteemed.  After the meal the lads usually return home with a considerable fee.  What further occurs the Chinese say little about.  It seems that real and deep affection is often born of these relations, at first platonic, but in the end becoming physical, not a matter for great concern in the eyes of the Chinese.  In the Chinese novels, often of a very literary character, devoted to masculine love, it seems that all the preliminaries and transports of normal love are to be found, while physical union may terminate the scene.  In China, however, the law may be brought into action for attempts against nature even with mutual consent; the penalty is one hundred strokes with the bamboo and a month’s imprisonment; if there is violence, the penalty is decapitation; I am not able to say how far the law is a dead letter.  According to Matignon, so far as homosexuality exists in China, it is carried on with much more decorum and restraint than it is in Europe, and he thinks it may be put down to the credit of the Chinese that, unlike Europeans, they never practice unnatural connection with women.  His account of the customs of the Chinese confirms Morache’s earlier account, and he remarks that, though not much spoken of, homosexuality is not looked down upon.  He gives some interesting details concerning the boy prostitutes.  These are sold by their parents (sometimes stolen from them), about the age of 4, and educated, while they are also subjected to a special