The exact nature of the relations between the boy-wife and his protector are doubtful; they certainly have connection, but the natives repudiate with horror and disgust the idea of sodomy.[40] Further light is thrown on homosexuality in Australia by the supposition of Spencer and Gillen that the _mika_ operation (urethral subincision), an artificial hypospadias, is for the purpose of homosexual intercourse.
Klaatsch has discussed the homosexual origin of the _mika_ operation on the basis of information he received from missionaries at Niol-Niol, on the northwest coast.

The subincised man acts as a female to the as yet unoperated boys, who perform coitus in the incised opening.

Both informed Klaatsch in 1906 that at Boulia in Queensland the operated men are said to "possess a vulva."[41] These various accounts are of considerable interest, though for the most part their precise significance remains doubtful.

Some of them, however,--such as Holder's description of the _bote_, Baumann's account of homosexual phenomena in Zanzibar, and especially Seligmann's observations in British New Guinea,--indicate not only the presence of esthetic inversion but of true congenital sexual inversion.

The extent of the evidence will doubtless be greatly enlarged as the number of competent observers increases, and crucial points are no longer so frequently overlooked.
On the whole, the evidence shows that among lower races homosexual practices are regarded with considerable indifference, and the real invert, if he exists among them, as doubtless he does exist, generally passes unperceived or joins some sacred caste which sanctifies his exclusively homosexual inclinations.
Even in Europe today a considerable lack of repugnance to homosexual practices may be found among the lower classes.