Note on the “chastity index” motif

Note: this text is extracted from Book II, chapter 13:

Compare the rose garland in the story of “The Wright’s Chaste Wife,” edited for the Early English Text Society by Frederick J. Furnivall, especially lines 58 et seq:

“Wete thou wele withowtyn fable
Alle the whyle thy wife is stable
The chaplett wolle holde hewe;
And yf thy wyfe use putry
Or tolle eny man to lye her by
Then wolle yt change hewe,
And by the garland thou may see,
Fekylle or fals yf that sche be,
Or elles yf she be true.”

See also note in Wilson’s Essays on Sanskrit Literature, vol. i, p. 218. He tells us that in Perceforest the lily of the Kathā Sarit Sāgara is represented by a rose. In Amadîs de Gaula it is a garland which blooms on the head of her that is faithful, and fades on the brow of the inconstant. In Les Contes à Rire it is also a flower. In Ariosto the test applied to both male and female is a cup, the wine of which is spilled by the unfaithful lover. This fiction also occurs in the romances of Tristan, Perceval and La Morte d’Arthur, and is well known by La Fontaine’s version, La Coupe Enchantée. In La Lai du Corn it is a drinking-horn. Spenser has derived his girdle of Florimel from these sources, or more immediately from the Fabliau, “Le Manteau mal taillé” or “Le Court Mantel,” an English version of which is published in Percy’s Reliques, “The Boy and the Mantle” (Book III), where in the case of Sir Kay’s lady we read:

“ When she had tane the mantle with purpose for to wear,
It shrunk up to her shoulder and left her backside bare.”

In the Gesta Romanorum (chap. lxix) the test is the whimsical one of a shirt, which will neither require washing nor mending as long as the wearer is constant (not the wearer only, but the wearer and his wife). Davenant has substituted an emerald for a flower:

“ The bridal stone,
And much renowned, because it chasteness loves,
And will, when worn by the neglected wife,
Shew when her absent lord disloyal proves
By faintness and a pale decay of life.”

I may remark that there is a certain resemblance in this story to that of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, which is founded on the ninth story of the second day in The Decameron, and to the seventh story in Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Märchen. See also “The King of Spain and his Queen” in Thorpe’s Yule-tide Stories, pp. 452-455. Thorpe remarks that the tale agrees in substance with the ballad of the “Graf Von Rom” in Uhland, ii, 784; and with the Flemish story of “Ritter Alexander aus Metz und seine Frau Florentina.” In the twenty-first of Bandello’s novels the test is a mirror (Liebrecht’s Dunlop, p. 287). See also pp. 85 and 86 of Liebrecht’s Dunlop, with the notes at the end of the volume.-

In considering the “Tests of Chastity” or “Faith Token” motif, as E. S. Hartland prefers to call it, we should be careful to differentiate from other motifs which are rather similar. In the motif with which we are here concerned the usual details are: The husband is going abroad, leaving behind a beautiful wife. Both are in love with each other, but are not unmindful of the adage, “Out of sight, out of mind,” so they arrange that one of them (or both) should have a magical article to serve as an index to their actions.

Closely allied to this idea is that where the services of a chaste woman or a virgin are required. Thus in Chapter XXXVI of the Ocean of Story only a chaste woman could raise up the fallen elephant. As we shall see later in a note to that story, there are many variants of this motif.

Finally there is the “Act of Truth” motif (ably discussed by Burliṅgame in the Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc., July 1917, p. 429 et seq.), which at times practically coincides with that mentioned immediately above. An “act of truth” is a declaration of fact accompanied by a desire for a certain thing to happen in proof of the declaration being true. Thus in making the elephant rise up (see above) the chaste woman says: “If I have not ever thought in my mind of any other man than my husband, may it rise up.” As the declaration is the absolute truth, the elephant rises immediately. But the “act of truth” need not necessarily have any connection with chastity, as numerous examples (to be quoted in Chapter XXXVI) will show. Thus the elephant incident is both a “test of chastity” and “act of truth” motif

In the method of leaving behind flowers (or other articles) which show the chastity of the absentee, or of the lady left at home, I would, therefore, not call the motif “Test of Chastity,” as there is really no test used at all. The test is used in the “Act of Truth” motif, where, as explained above, it may be a chastity test or any other sort of test.

The name “Faith Token” is an improvement, but I think “Chastity Index” is the most suitable.

Thus the three varieties would be:

1. Chastity Index. Where an object by some mystical power records the chastity of an absent person.
2. Test of Chastity. Where a person is ready to put his or her chastity to the test, thereby achieving some wish or rendering some help in an emergency.
3. Act of Truth. Where the power of a simple truthful declaration (of whatever nature) causes the accomplishment of some wish or resolution.

In several cases a person before setting out on a dangerous journey will leave an object which will show if that person is hurt or killed. This idea dates from Ptolemaic times, where, in the “Veritable History of Satni-Khamoîs,”

Tnahsît has to go to Egypt, and says to his mother:

“If I am vanquished, when thou drinkest or when thou eatest, the water will become the colour of blood before thee, the provisions will become the colour of blood before thee, the sky will become the colour of blood before thee.”

While even earlier, in the nineteenth dynasty, the misfortune of an absent brother will be shown to the one at home by his beer throwing up froth and his wine becoming thick. This motif is clearly the passive side of the “Life Index” motif (see my note on p. 129) and has been classified as such by Dr Ruth Norton (Studies in Honor of Maurice Bloomfield, p. 220).

In view of the above classification we find that certain incidents which at first sight seem to be variants of the motif in our text come under “Tests of Chastity” and are not examples of the “Chastity Index.” Thus Zayn al-Asnam (Burton, Nights, Supp., vol. iii, p. 23) has a mirror which tests the virtue of women who look into it, remaining clear if they are pure, and becoming dull if they are not (rather like “Le Court Mantel” already mentioned). Similarly, the cup which Oberon, King of the Fairies, gave to the Duke Huon of Bordeaux immediately filled itself with wine when held in the hand of a man of noble character, but remained empty when in that of a sinner. Both of these are examples of the “Tests of Chastity” motif and not of the “ Chastity Index.”

Apart from the examples of the “Chastity Index” motif already given at the beginning of this note a few more can be added.

As both Clouston and Hartland have noticed, it is quite possible that “The Wright’s Chaste Wife” suggested to Massinger the idea of the plot of his comedy of The Picture (printed in 1630), where a Bohemian knight, Mathias by name, is given a picture by his friend Baptista, which will serve as an index to his (the knight’s) wife’s behaviour while away at the wars.

The picture is of the wife herself, and Baptista explains its properties, saying:

“Carry it still about you, and as oft
As you desire to know how she’s affected,
With curious eyes peruse it. While it keeps
The figure it has now entire and perfect,
She is not only innocent in fact
But unattempted; but if once it vary
From the true form, and what’s now white and red
Incline to yellow, rest most confident
She’s with all violence courted, but unconquered;
But if it turn all black,’tis an assurance
The fort by composition or surprise
Is forced, or with her free consent surrendered.”

As readers will have noticed, it often happens that a story combines the “Entrapped Suitors” motif and that of the “Chastity Index.” Thus several of the tales mentioned in my note to the story of “Upakośā and her Four Lovers” (pp. 42-44) occur again here. Moreover, the second part of the present story may be looked upon as a variant of the “ Entrapped Suitors” motif. It will be discussed in the next note.

An example of a story embodying both motifs is found in the Persian Tūtī-Nāma (fourth night of the India Office MS., No. 2573). It bears quite a strong resemblance to the tale of Devasmitā. A soldier receives a nosegay from his wife on parting which is an index of her chastity. The husband enters the service of a nobleman, who learns the history of the unfading flowers. For a joke he sends one of his servants to tempt the wife to be unfaithful. He fails, so a second servant is sent, who likewise fails—both being entrapped by the wife. Finally the nobleman himself, in company with many retainers, including the husband, visit the wife. She receives them most courteously and his own servants are made to wait upon him at supper. The nobleman apologises for his behaviour and all is well.

For a detailed list of chastity articles see Chauvin, Bibliographie des Ouvrages Arabes, vii, pp. 167-1 69 . See also Swynnerton, Indian Nights Entertainments, p. 335.

Both Burton and Clouston mention an incident in the Pentamerone where a fairy gives each of a king’s three daughters a ring, which would break if they became immoral. I have failed to find this, but suspect a mistake, as in the third diversion of the fourth day Queen Grazolla gives a ring to each of her three daughters, saying that if parted from each other, on meeting again, or meeting any of their relations at any time, they would always be able to recognise them (however changed or altered) by the virtue of the rings. Thus it has no bearing on our note at all.

The mystic connection between the absent person and an object left behind is fully believed in by certain peoples. Thus in Peru the husband knots a branch of Euphorbia before leaving home. If on his return the knots are withered it is a sign that his wife has been unfaithful (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_} vol. xxxvii, p. 439).

In the course of his researches among the Indians in the Vera Paz, Guatemala, Mr Fenton was told that when a husband goes into the bush to trap animals the wife is not expected to leave her hut to greet a visitor, but to coax him to come into the room in the same way as she hopes the animals are being coaxed into her husband’s trap.

If, however, the husband is away shooting (pursuing), the wife on seeing her visitor will leave her hut and go after him to greet him.

Should the absent husband see two monkeys making love, he goes straight home and beats his wife, taking it for granted that she has been unfaithful to him.

At Siena formerly (says Hartland) a maiden who wished to know how her love progressed kept and tended a plant of rue. If it withered it was a sign that her lover had deceived her (Archivib, 1891, vol. x, p. 30).

Various methods of finding by means of different articles whether lovers are true exist everywhere and many examples will occur to readers.— n.m.p.