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Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Inversion"

Among Brazilian tribes Gandavo[148] wrote:--
"There are certain women among these Indians who determine to be
chaste and know no man. These leave every womanly occupation and
imitate the men. They wear their hair the same way as the men;
they go to war with them or hunting, bearing their bows; they
continue always in the company of men, and each has a woman who
serves her and with whom she lives."
This has some analogy with the phenomena seen among North American men.
Dr. Holder, who has carefully studied the _bote_, tells me that he has met
no corresponding phenomena in women.
There is no doubt, however, that homosexuality among women is well known
to the American Indians in various regions. Thus the Salish Indians of
British Columbia have a myth of an old woman who had intercourse with a
young woman by means of a horn used as a penis.[149] In the mythology of
the Assiniboine Indians (of Canada and Montana) and the Fox Indians (of
Iowa) there are also legends of feminine homosexuality, supposed to have
been derived from the Algonkin Cree Indians, who were closely connected
with both.


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