traceable in India. Dubois referred to houses
devoted to male prostitution, with men dressed as women, and imitating the
ways of women.[27] Burton in the "Terminal Essay" to his translation of
the _Arabian Nights_, states that when in 1845 Sir Charles Napier
conquered and annexed Sind three brothels of eunuchs and boys were found
in the small town of Karachi, and Burton was instructed to visit and
report on them. Hindus, in general, however, it appears, hold
homosexuality in abhorrence. In Afghanistan homosexuality is more
generally accepted, and Burton stated that "each caravan is accompanied by
a number of boys and lads almost in woman's attire, with kohled eyes and
rouged cheeks, long tresses and hennaed fingers and toes, riding
luxuriously in camel paniers."

If we turn to the New World, we find that among the American Indians, from
the Eskimo of Alaska downward to Brazil and still farther south,
homosexual customs have been very frequently observed. Sometimes they are
regarded by the tribe with honor, sometimes with indifference, sometimes
with contempt; but they appear to be always tolerated. Although there are
local differences, these customs, on the whole, seem to have much in
common. The best early description which I have been able to find is by
Langsdorff[28] and concerns the Aleuts of Oonalashka in Alaska: "Boys, if
they happen to be very handsome," he says, "are often brought up entirely
in the manner of girls, and instructed in the arts women use to please
men; their beards are carefully plucked out as soon as they begin to
appear, and their chins tattooed like those of women; they wear ornaments
of glass beads upon their legs and arms, bind and cut their hair in the
same manner as the women, and supply their place with the men as
concubines. This shocking, unnatural, and immoral practice has obtained
here even from the remotest times; nor have any measures hitherto been
taken to repress and restrain it; such men are known under the name of
_schopans_."

Among the Konyagas Langsdorff found the custom much more common than among
the Aleuts; he remarks that, although the mothers brought up some of their
children in this way, they seemed very fond of their offspring. Lisiansky,
at about the same period, tells us that: "Of all the customs of these
islanders, the most disgusting is that of men, called _schoopans_, living
with men, and supplying the place of women. These are brought up from
their infancy with f