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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58475 ***
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      https://archive.org/details/B20442208
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+      Text enclosed by plus signs is in bold face (+bold+).
+
+
+
+
+
+SEXUAL LIFE OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLE
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+BY S. HERBERT, M.D., M.R.C.S., I.R.C.P.
+
+
++AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.+
+
+Large Crown 8vo.      Illustrated.      Price +7/6+ net.
+
+
++FUNDAMENTALS IN SEXUAL ETHICS.+
+
+An Enquiry into Modern Tendencies.
+
+Large Crown 8vo.      Price +12/6+ net.
+
+
++FIRST PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY.+
+
+Second Edition. Containing 75 Illustrations.
+
+Large Crown 8vo.      Price +7/6+ net.
+
+
++FIRST PRINCIPLES OF EVOLUTION.+
+
+Second Edition. Containing 90 Illustrations,
+Diagrams and Tables.
+
+Large Crown 8vo.      Price +12/6+ net.
+
+
+BY MRS. S. HERBERT.
+
++SEX LORE.+
+
+A Primer on Courtship, Marriage and Parenthood.
+Containing 55 Illustrations.
+
+Large Crown 8vo.      Price +7/6+ net.
+
+
+BY MRS. HAVELOCK ELLIS.
+
++THE NEW HORIZON IN LOVE AND LIFE.+
+
+With a Preface by Edward Carpenter and an
+Introduction by Marguerite Tracy.
+
+Large Crown 8vo.      Price +10/6+ net.
+
+
+PUBLISHED BY A. & C. BLACK, LTD.,
+4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1.
+
+
+AGENTS
+
+AMERICA          THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+                   64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+AUSTRALASIA      THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
+                   205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE
+
+CANADA           THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
+                   ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET TORONTO
+
+INDIA            MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
+                   MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
+                   309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+SEXUAL LIFE
+OF
+PRIMITIVE PEOPLE
+
+by
+
+H. FEHLINGER
+
+Translated by S. Herbert, M.D., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.
+Author of "An Introduction to the Physiology and
+Psychology of Sex," "Fundamentals in Sexual Ethics," etc.
+and
+Mrs. S. Herbert,
+Author of "Sex Lore."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A. & C. Black, Ltd.
+4, 5 & 6 Soho Square, London, W. 1
+1921
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+To most lay people the established order of sex relationships and
+marriage seems something so self-evident and stable that they cannot
+conceive the possibility of a variation in the established order. Yet
+here, as in all things, the law of evolution applies. Our sexual system
+is the outcome of a long continuous series of changes beginning with the
+very dawn of human history. To understand the modern sex problem rightly
+it is essential to know its origin and gradual development.
+
+Most of the material about the sex life of primitive people is
+inaccessible to the ordinary reader, being hidden away in learned
+treatises and ponderous scientific works. The translators are,
+therefore, glad to have found in Fehlinger's book a short comprehensive
+outline of the subject, which may serve as a convenient introduction.
+
+S. H.
+F. H.
+
+MANCHESTER,
+_July, 1921_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+   I. MODESTY AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLE                1
+
+  II. PRE-MARITAL FREEDOM AND CONJUGAL FIDELITY    13
+
+ III. COURTSHIP CUSTOMS                            34
+
+  IV. MARRIAGE                                     46
+
+   V. BIRTH AND FETICIDE                           76
+
+  VI. IGNORANCE OF THE PROCESS OF GENERATION       93
+
+ VII. MUTILATION OF THE SEX ORGANS                103
+
+VIII. MATURITY AND DECLINE                        119
+
+  IX. BIBLIOGRAPHY                                128
+
+
+
+
+SEXUAL LIFE OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLE
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+MODESTY AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLE
+
+
+In cold and temperate climates, it is necessary to clothe the body as a
+protection against cold. In hot parts of the world, the need for
+protection against the effects of the weather by means of clothing
+disappears, and therefore in those regions primitive people go about
+naked. It is only when they come under the influence of foreign
+civilisation that they put on clothing. It is erroneous to assume that
+clothing came into use because of an inborn sexual modesty. In
+Australia, in the Indonesian and Melanesian islands, in tropical Africa,
+and in South America, there are still many peoples that go about naked.
+It is true that many of them cover their sex organs; but the
+contrivances used for this purpose are not in reality intended to hide
+the sex region, though to our mind they seem to do so.
+
+Primitive people do not cover their bodies out of modesty; "the
+sinfulness of nakedness" is unknown to them. Karl von den Steinen (pp.
+190, 191) says that the naked Indian tribes of the Xingu region of
+Brazil know no secret parts of the body. "They joke about these parts in
+words and pictures quite unabashed, so that it would be foolish to call
+them indecent. They are envious of our clothing, as of some precious
+finery; they put it on and wear it in our presence with a complete
+disregard of the simplest rules of our own society, and in complete
+ignorance of its purpose. This proves that they still possess the
+pristine guilelessness of Adam and Eve in Eden. Some of them celebrate
+the advent of puberty in members of both sexes by noisy festivals, when
+the 'private parts' come in for a good deal of general attention. If a
+man wishes to inform a stranger that he is a father, or a woman that she
+is a mother, they gravely denote the fact by touching the organs from
+which life springs, in a most spontaneous and natural manner. It is,
+therefore, not possible to understand these people properly unless we
+put aside our conception of 'clothing,' and take them and their manners
+in their own natural way."
+
+The absence of sexual modesty in our sense also struck von Steinen when
+questions about words arose. If he asked about a word which to our minds
+might give cause for shame, the reply was given without hesitation or
+any semblance of shame. Nevertheless, conversations about sexual
+subjects gave the Indians, men and women, decided pleasure; but their
+merry laughter was "neither impudent, nor did it give the impression of
+hiding an inward embarrassment. It had, however, a slightly erotic tone,
+and resembled the laughter aroused by the jokes in our own
+spinning-rooms, by games of forfeits, and by other harmless jokes
+exchanged in intercourse between the sexes, although the occasions and
+accompanying circumstances must be so very different among truly
+primitive people."
+
+Naked savages are, however, not devoid of sexual modesty. It shows
+itself immediately when any remark addressed to them can be construed as
+an invitation to sexual intercourse, or when coarse jokes are made about
+sexual subjects. This is clearly shown in an account by Koch-Grünberg
+(I., p. 307). His European companion wanted to perform a kind of stomach
+dance before some savage Indians of the Upper Rio Negro, such as is
+danced in places of ill repute in Brazilian towns. The very indecent
+movements of the dancer caused the women and girls to retire shyly. The
+European in his attempt to "entertain" the company failed completely.
+Yet one can converse quietly with these Indians on all sexual subjects
+so long as they are natural; it is only obscenity that shocks them.
+
+According to Eylmann, the Australians, at least the men, show no modesty
+in sex matters, though they are by no means devoid of it in other
+respects. Thus, _e.g._, they are ashamed of any mutilation of their
+bodies. Young men do not cover their sex organs, but the old ones do
+so, because they seem to be aware that this part of the body, of which
+they were once so proud, bears signs of old age. The women also rarely
+make use of an apron, yet they show clearly marked sexual modesty. A
+woman is always very careful not to expose the external sex organs when
+she sits or lies down in the presence of men. The greatest decency is
+observed during the time of menstruation.
+
+In Indonesia the feeling of modesty among those tribes that are in
+constant contact with Europeans is essentially different from that of
+the tribes less under foreign influence. Thus Nieuwenhuis (I., pp. 133,
+134) mentions, for instance, the Bahaus and Kenyas of Central Borneo. Of
+these the latter are only slightly influenced by the Mohammedan Malays,
+the former, however, relatively much more so. Although members of both
+tribes bathe completely naked, yet the Bahaus dress immediately after
+the bath, whilst the Kenyas go naked to and from the bath. The Kenya
+women also go naked to the spring to bring water and to bathe their
+children. Whilst getting the boats through the rapids the Kenya men take
+off their loin-cloths, but the Bahau men never do this. When
+Nieuwenhuis' expedition stayed some time among the Kenyas, it was
+noticed that the people got out of the habit of going about naked at
+times. This was only because the Malays and Bahaus belonging to the
+expedition had told the Kenyas that the white people objected to the
+naked appearance of the natives (which was not correct). Nieuwenhuis
+adds: "It can thus be seen what a great _rôle_ acquired modesty plays in
+the evolution of clothes." The clothing of the present-day Dyaks serves
+as a protection against the heat of the sun, and in the mountains
+against cold, and as a prevention of the darkening of the skin (which,
+particularly in women, is considered ugly); it is also used as an
+ornament and to scare enemies, but never for the concealment of the
+body. The Dyaks show shame when made embarrassed before other people; on
+such occasions they blush right down to the breast. Nieuwenhuis made use
+of this circumstance in the case of the Bahaus in order to make them
+keep their promises and do their duties (II., p. 296).
+
+The Eskimos in the far north of America are, as a rule, thickly clothed;
+but it is quite usual for them to go about naked in their snow huts
+without any thought of offending against decency.
+
+Whoever lives for a time among naked savages becomes accustomed to their
+nakedness, and does not feel anything objectionable in it. Æsthetically
+there is this disadvantage, that the sick and the aged look very
+repulsive in their decline; but then again youth and strength show off
+to great advantage in nakedness.
+
+If the origin of clothing is not due to sexual modesty, it would at
+first appear strange that so many naked savages cover their sexual
+organs either completely or partly, wearing a pubic apron or some
+similar arrangement. The contrivances used are sometimes so small that
+they can hardly have been intended as coverings. Thus the women of the
+Karaib, Aruak, and Tupi tribes in the Xingui region all wear a
+triangular piece of bark bast not more than 7 centimetres wide and 3
+centimetres high. The lower end of the triangle runs into a perineal
+strip of hard bark about 4 millimetres wide. Two narrow cords coming
+from the two upper ends pass along the groins, and meet the narrow
+perineal strip coming from the lower end of the triangle. These _uluri_
+only just cover the beginning of the pubic cleft, pressing tightly on
+it. The triangle does not reach the introitus vaginæ, which is, however,
+closed, or at least kept inwards, by the pressure exerted by the
+tightened strip of bast running from front to back. Similar binders are
+used by the Indian women of Central Brazil. The binder used by the
+Trumai women is twisted into a cord, serving still less as a cover. In
+fact, none of these binders serve as covers, but they are intended to
+close up and to protect the mucous membrane. This also applies to the
+binders used by the various peoples living on the islands of the Pacific
+Ocean, as, _e.g._, by the Mafulus of Papua.
+
+Various contrivances are also to be met with among many primitive men
+which seem to have the purpose of protecting the penis, and which really
+achieve that end. Among certain tribes of Brazil penis wraps made from
+palm straw are worn; other tribes use a T-shaped bandage, which is also
+very common in Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. The penis is pulled
+up by means of the T-bandage, the testicles remaining free. Sometimes
+old men use a broad band, under which they can also push the testicles.
+In the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and other places, the penis is
+tightly bandaged, and is drawn up and fastened to the girdle by means of
+a cord or band, the testicles hanging free. Calabashes are also used to
+protect the penis. In Melanesia the penis pin goes with the calabash.
+Georg Friederici (p. 155) says about its use: "The penis pin, which is
+the shape of a wooden knitting needle, is stuck into the hair near the
+comb, and is often brought into use. The calabash, which serves the
+purpose of protecting the penis against injury in the bush and attacks
+from insects, has the disadvantage of easily becoming loose and filling
+quickly with water during swimming and wading. After every passage of a
+river reaching above the pubic region a halt had to be made, during
+which my men took off their calabashes and emptied them; then they put a
+new layer of green leaves into the round opening, stuck the penis in,
+and, with the help of the penis pin, pushed it in until it had
+completely disappeared and the calabash lay close to the abdomen." When
+sitting round the camp fire, and at other times, the men can be seen
+drawing the pins from their hair and making their toilet. The covering
+of the penis is undoubtedly intended as a protection of the sensitive
+glans. Thus in the Brazilian forest the penis becomes endangered by
+spines of leaves being brushed off the branches and boring themselves
+deeply into the flesh; the spines get torn when pulled out, and cause
+painful inflammations. For warding off insects the women of many Indian
+tribes have tassels hanging in front of the sex organs. In the Northern
+Territory of Australia both men and women wear such tassels. There are
+still greater dangers in the wilderness. In Brazil there exists a small
+fish (_Cetopsis candiru_) which has a tendency towards boring itself
+into any of the exposed orifices of the body. It slips into the urethra,
+and is prevented by its fins from getting out again, and thus may easily
+bring about the death of the victim, to whom nothing remains but to
+attempt an impromptu operation by slitting open the urethra with his
+knife. Friederici remarks that it is just in those regions of tropical
+America where the protection of the penis is most prevalent that fish
+with sharp teeth (Pygocentrus species) are to be found which have a
+tendency towards attacking protruding unprotected parts of the body,
+thus often causing castration in men.
+
+There is no foundation for the assumption of Adolf Gerson that men
+invented the apron or resorted to binding up of the penis in order to
+hide its erection, which would make them appear ridiculous, for sex
+matters do not appear ridiculous to primitive people. In fact, such
+contrivances cannot hide sexual excitement. Many peoples who use them do
+not even have the wish to keep their excitement secret. Habituation to
+nakedness ultimately lessens the stimulus to excitement. The following
+fact, stated by Friederici, is worthy of notice: "During the many months
+in which I lived exclusively among the natives I never saw even the
+slightest sign of an erection in sleeping men, nor have I ever heard or
+read that any one else has noticed such a thing among naked primitive
+peoples, untouched by civilisation." Clothing has nothing to do with
+sexual feelings or modesty among primitive people. To the people living
+in the tropics clothes are essentially ornamental; they are worn for
+reasons of vanity, not out of modesty. This can be well observed in
+those cases where loin-cloths which actually cover up the pubic region
+are raised without any consideration for people present, if there is any
+danger of their becoming soiled or injured. The Malay women in the
+central part of Luzon (Philippines), when working in the fields, discard
+their wrappings without worrying in the least if observed by the men. It
+is the same in other places.
+
+As has been said before, among some naked peoples it is the custom for
+the men to fasten up the penis without any covering under a hip band. In
+other places they tie up the foreskin with a thread. By this means
+protection is also given to the glans, but it is questionable whether
+this was always the origin of this custom. In fact, it is doubtful
+whether the need for protection was always the only reason for the
+wearing of sheaths, binders, etc., for at least among some of the people
+it is connected with some ceremonial which implies its sexual
+significance. In the case of women, another factor may have played a
+_rôle_, viz., the fact that menstruation is considered an illness, as
+may be seen in the widespread custom of treating girls medically during
+menstruation. The binder may have been intended to counteract the loss
+of blood. The stretching of the foreskin which results from the use of
+penis wraps, penis binders, etc., may be looked upon as a precaution
+against phimosis, serving the same purpose as circumcision does among
+numerous peoples.
+
+Sexual modesty with regard to the naked body cannot be considered innate
+in mankind, for it is unknown among many naked peoples. On the other
+hand, there is an instinctive tendency in man to hide from his fellows
+the effluvia of the sexual and digestive organs. Thus H. Ellis (p. 40)
+gives a good explanation of the impulse towards concealment during the
+sex act: "Both male and female need to guard themselves during the
+exercise of their sexual activities from jealous rivals, as well as from
+enemies who might take advantage of their position to attack them. It is
+highly probable that this is one important factor in the constitution of
+modesty, and it helps to explain how the male, not less than the female,
+cultivates modesty and shuns publicity in the exercise of sexual
+functions." The idea, begotten from fear, that sexual intercourse must
+be kept secret, became easily extended to the feeling that such
+intercourse was in itself wrong. The mystery surrounding sexual
+intercourse has certainly been one of the factors leading to its
+concealment. Primitive man has a tendency towards endowing with
+supernatural powers all processes that he cannot understand; they become
+sacred, and hence have to be carried out in privacy. The feeling of
+disgust may perhaps be an additional reason for the concealment of the
+sex act. The objects arousing disgust vary among different peoples
+according to the conditions of their lives; but almost everywhere
+dangerous things are classed under this category, to which belong,
+according to the notion of primitive people, the discharges from the
+sexual and digestive organs. It thus comes about that primitive man is
+ashamed of urinating and defæcating even before persons of his own sex.
+Even the lowest savage will seek out a very secluded spot for the
+fulfilment of these functions. Thus Koch-Grünberg, for instance, says:
+"The Indian goes deep into the wood for a certain business, comparing
+favourably in this respect with our own peasants." Friederici writes of
+the Melanesians that they are not at all ashamed to show the sexual
+parts, but are extremely shy of exposing the anus, and will always avoid
+letting themselves be seen during defæcation. In the central districts
+the people betake themselves for this purpose early in the morning to
+some outlying place, while those living near the sea go to the beach,
+each person keeping as far away as possible from his neighbour. The
+Africans that have not yet become spoiled by contact with strangers
+also seek remote places (Weule and Schweinfurth). The negroes, however,
+who are under Mohammedan influence, approach in this respect the beasts
+of the field.
+
+The tales of licentiousness among primitive people that are to be found
+in old works of travel are mostly invented or grossly exaggerated.
+Looseness and laxity do not exist anywhere, though the unwritten laws
+which regulate the behaviour of the sexes are different from ours.
+Unbridled indulgence is nowhere to be found; the public performance of
+the sex act takes place only exceptionally among some peoples, and then
+for ceremonial purposes. Even where, on festival occasions, marital
+intercourse takes place as a matter of course, the couples disappear
+into the darkness. So far as can be judged from ethnological literature,
+Europeans have rarely had the opportunity of observing the sex act, and
+then nearly exclusively among the African negroes, who must be reckoned
+the most sensual of all existing peoples. (See the works of Leo
+Frobenius and Georg Schweinfurth.)
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+PRE-MARITAL FREEDOM AND CONJUGAL FIDELITY
+
+
+Travellers and missionaries, seeing things merely from the standpoint of
+European civilisation, have for a long time attributed to primitive
+people conceptions of sexual behaviour like our own. But the real truth
+could not be hidden for long. It is now firmly established that the
+moral ideas of primitive people differ as widely from ours as does their
+sense of modesty. They do not consider sexual intercourse _per se_ as
+immoral, and generally allow unmarried people full liberty. It is only
+where a more advanced civilisation leads to material considerations in
+the matter of sex relationship that, as a rule, this liberty is
+restricted or entirely in abeyance. Should any consequences ensue from
+the practice of free love, the lover is generally in duty bound to marry
+the girl. Among some tribes, however, no such obligation exists; the
+lover may break off his connection with the pregnant girl. Frequently in
+cases of pre-marital pregnancy abortion is resorted to, which is very
+prevalent among primitive races. Among some people, on the contrary, a
+girl who has had a child gets married the more easily, for she has given
+proof of her fertility. Besides, the child will be an additional worker
+in the house.
+
+Most peoples demand conjugal fidelity from their married women, though
+we shall hear of some exceptions. It is certainly not correct, as
+Buschan (1912, p. 237) says, that the rules concerning sexual
+intercourse are stringent throughout for women, and that only in a
+childless marriage may a woman take up with another man.
+
+Among many peoples, living so far apart as Asia, Australia, Oceania and
+Africa, we find that married men and women are in certain cases allowed
+intercourse with other persons. The full meaning of this arrangement is
+as yet unknown.
+
+The idea of sexual purity is not innate nor unchangeable. Ethnographical
+research has fully proved that purity in our sense of the term is
+unknown even to-day among many peoples, and that there exist no
+restrictions upon sexual intercourse except for the prevention of
+cohabitation among blood relations. A greater or less degree of sexual
+liberty before marriage prevails among most of those peoples in Asia
+that are not under the influence of Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
+Indeed, it even exists among some uncivilised Hindu tribes, as, _e.g._,
+among the lower Hindu castes of Kashmir and of the Punjab mountains, the
+various lower castes of Agra-Oudh, in the Central Provinces and Berar,
+and in Southern India; but they restrict pre-marital relationship to
+persons of their own community. Most Dravidian races, however, forbid
+intercourse between members of the same exogamic group, though it takes
+place at times in spite of this. The Mongolian races generally show
+indifference in this respect. Thus T. C. Hudson (p. 78) says of the
+Nagas in Manipur that they are conspicuous for their exceptionally loose
+pre-marital relationship, although they demand strict fidelity in
+marriage. Pre-marital intercourse between persons to whom marriage is
+forbidden is not considered improper, which may be due to the fact that
+the Nagas, like the Australian tribes, are ignorant of the process of
+generation.
+
+Among many native Indian tribes the grown-up children do not sleep in
+their parents' huts, but in houses of their own, in which they commonly
+visit each other by night. Should a girl become pregnant, the probable
+father is expected to marry her. If he refuses, he has to pay damages,
+and the girl is at liberty to marry some one else, which she can do
+without any difficulty. Sometimes abortion is resorted to, especially
+when both persons belong to the same exogamic group, the members of
+which are not allowed to intermarry. The tribes of Baroda, the Maduvars
+of Madras, and the Ghasyas of the United Provinces, permit a
+probationary period of cohabitation. It is considered no disgrace for a
+girl if the trial marriage does not result in a permanent marriage.
+Among the Garos it is an unwritten law that after certain great
+festivals young men and women may sleep together. Otherwise these Garos,
+like the tribes and castes previously referred to, are strictly
+monogamous. Sexual promiscuity often occurs after feasts, and it is not
+restricted to the unmarried (Playfair, p. 68).
+
+It is only seldom that unfaithfulness on the part of married women is
+tolerated. But there are exceptions. Gait states that in the Djamna
+mountains the women of the Thakkar, Megh, and other low castes lead just
+as unrestrained a life after marriage as before. The Djats of
+Baluchistan are in ill repute because they incite their married women to
+unfaithfulness, if any advantage can be obtained thereby for the men.
+Certain nomadic castes, such as the Mirasis, prostitute their women, and
+the love affairs of married women of the servant class meet with no
+opposition whatever. In the eastern region of Djamba, in the Punjab, the
+husband is expected to allow a guest free entrance to the women's
+chambers. In the western part of this province the Djats and Pathans
+will often take back married women who have eloped, and not rarely a
+husband will recognise as his own a son who may have been born while the
+woman was away.
+
+In Southern India married women enjoy a great deal of sexual freedom,
+especially in those communities where the descent is reckoned in the
+female line. Where marriage between cousins is customary, grown-up girls
+are often married to quite young boys. During the immaturity of the
+husband the wife is allowed to have sexual relations with the father of
+her child husband or another near relation, sometimes even with any one
+member of the caste chosen by her. This custom also exists in Kashmir,
+not only among the Ladakhis, but also among other low Hindu castes, and
+is also to be found in other parts of the world. Many South Indian
+castes allow their married women much freedom with the relatives of
+their husbands. The Tootiyans go so far as to forbid a husband to enter
+his house if he finds the door locked and a relation's shoe before it.
+The Maloyali, a mountain tribe, accept unfaithfulness on the part of
+their wives quite lightly, unless the partner belongs to another caste;
+if a woman lives for a time with a lover and has children during this
+time, the husband will on her return recognise the children as his own.
+The state of affairs is similar among the Kudans and Parivarams. Many
+low Hindu castes in North Kanara allow their women extra-marital
+intercourse with men of their own or of a higher caste. Among some
+castes, such as the Irulas and Kurumbas, formal marriage is completely
+unknown, an almost unbridled sexual promiscuity taking its place. A
+Korawa of Madras who has debts to pay either pawns or simply sells his
+wife. The Todas and other polyandrous communities of South India do not
+know jealousy (Rivers, 1906, p. 592; Iyer, I., p. 136). An exception to
+the rule that faithfulness in marriage is more strictly enforced than
+purity before marriage is to be found among the Pongalakapus of Madras,
+who allow extra-marital intercourse of married women, but punish that of
+unmarried girls and widows (Gait).
+
+The Veddahs of Ceylon, who, according to Paul and Fritz Sarasin, are
+physically and intellectually of the lowest human type, practise
+monogamy, which lasts until the death of one of the partners. Marital
+unfaithfulness is rare, and leads to heavy punishment of the offending
+rival, who, as a rule, is assassinated. Only where foreign influence has
+become apparent is there a tendency to dissolve marriage before death
+(Paul and Fritz Sarasin).
+
+Hose and MacDougall mention that among the nomadic hunting tribes of
+Inner Borneo "the women are chaster after marriage than before."
+Apparently neither sex practises much restraint. A girl's pregnancy
+generally results in her marriage with the father of the expected child.
+Amongst the settled tribes of Borneo a young man seeks a love affair as
+soon as he is attracted to the other sex; he may have relations with
+several girls one after another, but generally marries early. The
+marriage age of the men is about twenty, of the girls still earlier.
+There is no information about their marital fidelity.
+
+The Dutchmen Hinlopen and Severijn state that in 1852 they found on the
+Poggi Islands, on the west coast of Sumatra, a state of complete
+promiscuity. Some of the men are said to get married, but only very
+late, between the ages of forty and fifty, when their detailed tattooing
+is completed; it is only seldom that a young man takes a separate wife.
+G. A. Wilken enumerates the following East Indian communities as living
+in sexual promiscuity: the Lubus, the Orang-Sakai of Malacca, the
+Olo-Ot, and other Bornean tribes; the inhabitants of the island Peling.
+He adduces no evidence, however; and his statement is certainly
+incorrect as far as the Sakai of Malacca are concerned. Among the
+non-Christian tribes of the Philippine Islands considerable pre-marital
+liberty prevails. Among the Igorotes, _e.g._, the dormitory of the
+unmarried girls (the _olag_) serves also as the pairing place of the
+marriageable young people. In the villages young people, joking and
+laughing, can frequently be seen going about wrapped in one blanket and
+with their arms round each other. There is no secrecy about the wooing;
+it is carried on mainly in the _olag_. Marriage rarely takes place
+without previous intercourse, and seldom before the girl is pregnant. An
+exception to this rule only occurs when a rich man marries a girl
+against her will at the parents' wish. Not infrequently a young man has
+affairs with two or three girls at one and the same time. The girls
+quite openly and unmistakably invite the men to go with them into the
+_olag_. As soon as a girl becomes pregnant, she at once joyfully informs
+the father of the child, for these people are very fond of children. If
+the man refuses to marry the girl, there is likely to be tears, but no
+one is much concerned about the infidelity itself, because the girl can
+find a husband later on in spite of her having borne a child; indeed,
+the more so, as there can be no doubt of her fertility. It is not
+customary for married men to enter the _olag_. A young man, however, can
+go there if his former love has remained single and welcomes him,
+because she still has hopes of becoming his wife, for it is easy to get
+a separation, and if a man can afford it, he may have two or three
+wives, though polygamy is rare. A man whose wife is pregnant does not
+visit the _olag_, for it is feared that this may bring about a premature
+birth and cause the death of the child. Married women apparently remain
+always faithful (A. E. Jenks, p. 66). Ferdinand Blumentritt makes a
+statement, based on Spanish information, that the girls' houses of the
+Igorotes serve the purpose of ensuring pre-marital purity. This,
+however, is incorrect.
+
+Very similar customs prevail among the Naga tribes of Assam (Peal, pp.
+244 _et seq._).
+
+The pure Senoi and Semang tribes of the Malay Peninsula practise strict
+monogamy. Marriage takes place at an early age, sometimes between boys
+of fourteen and girls of thirteen. Even betrothals of children seem to
+occur. Marital unfaithfulness is punished with death (Martin, 1905, p.
+864).
+
+
+In many districts of Australia, indeed, among the majority of the
+natives of the Australian continent, there exist two forms of sexual
+union side by side. The one form consists in a girl's being given in
+marriage to one man without regard to the difference in ages, and also
+without any consideration for feelings of personal sympathy. Indeed,
+such is hardly possible, for the girls are given to the men at a very
+young age. The main cause of these unions is apparently economic. It
+ensures the man a housekeeper for himself who has to gather the largest
+share of provisions, for the result of the man's hunting yields only a
+very small part of the absolutely essential food. A man may have,
+according to his social position, one or more such housekeepers. In
+addition, each man and woman may form a union with one or more of the
+other sex merely for the purpose of sexual intercourse. Unlike the
+"marriages" previously mentioned, these unions do not take place without
+any formality--there is a special ceremony for the occasion. They do not
+last for life, at least among some of the tribes, but are regulated from
+time to time. This form of sexual union is generally called _pirauru_ in
+ethnographical literature, after the designation in use among the tribes
+of the Dieri, where this kind of sex community was first observed. The
+men of a _pirauru_ group are either consanguineous or collateral
+brothers, members of one and the same subdivision of the tribe;
+similarly, the women of a _pirauru_ group are consanguineous or
+collateral sisters. Sexual intercourse with a _pirauru_ wife is allowed
+during the absence of the husband who is her usual mate, and also at
+special festivals. When a man's housekeeper dies, her children are cared
+for by one of his _pirauru_ wives until he gets another housekeeper.
+Without the institution of _pirauru_, the younger men would be barred
+from sexual intercourse. Many of them are without housekeepers, as most
+of the young women are in the possession of the older influential men.
+It has been said that the old men are often killed by the young men on
+this account (Spencer, p. 11). The majority of the tribes that have the
+institution of _pirauru_ are ignorant of the connection between sexual
+intercourse and conception (see Chapter VI.). It is therefore not the
+production of progeny which seems to be the purpose of a common
+household between man and woman, nor of the _pirauru_ unions.
+
+Institutions similar to the Australian _pirauru_ also exist outside
+Australia. Codrington (p. 22) has established the fact that in the
+Solomon Islands and in other parts of Melanesia a woman of an exogamic
+group who is not yet married to one particular man may legitimately have
+sexual intercourse with all men of another exogamic group who are her
+potential husbands. The exogamic groups play a far more important _rôle_
+than individual marriage. In the Fijian Islands every man has the right
+to sexual intercourse with his wife's sisters. On special ceremonial
+occasions intercourse is permitted between those groups of men and women
+who stand in the relationship of possible conjugal partners (Thomson, p.
+185).
+
+Pre-marital sexual freedom of both sexes exists, or did exist, all over
+the South Sea islands before the advent of European influence. Thus,
+_e.g._, Robert W. Williamson (pp. 172-176) writes of the Mafulus, in
+the mountains of New Guinea, that unmarried youths and maidens are
+allowed to associate with each other without any precautions. There
+exists a good deal of "immorality." Even after marriage (which takes
+place with an elaborate pretence of bride capture) husband and wife are,
+as a rule, not faithful to each other, the marriage bond being very
+loose. But it is said that unfaithfulness on the part of the women
+(though not of the men) is considered a great offence. The injured
+husband used to have the right of killing the guilty man, which he did,
+as a rule, until the British authorities put an end to the practice.
+Nowadays the deceived husband is generally satisfied if he receives a
+pig or some other article of value from the guilty rival.
+
+
+In Africa sexual community is allowed at certain periods among the
+Hereros (Brinker, p. 88). Among many other Bantu tribes sexual communism
+is customary, particularly at the initiation of the young people. The
+girls, too, are allowed to choose male partners for a time, and among
+many tribes of South Africa it was customary for the girls who refused
+to be given to men against their will. The Colonial Government has now
+put a stop to this (Theal).
+
+The statements about the Hottentots of South Africa vary. But the custom
+of _sore_, which is found among them, seems to point to the existence of
+an institution similar to the Australian _pirauru_. Schultze (pp. 299,
+319) thinks that illicit love was punished among the Hottentots before
+the extensive immigration of the white people into South Africa led to
+the overthrow of their old customs. Either the guilty couple were
+beaten, with the consent of the parents, or the lover received, in
+addition to his own, his sweetheart's share of punishment. But Schultze
+mentions also that the institution of _sore_, intended ostensibly for
+the exchange of love gifts, really means in many cases a secret
+agreement for intimate extra-marital relationship, though it is
+generally quite honourable. This institution is by no means an
+innovation.
+
+The Hamitic tribes of East Africa, who belong to the most warlike races
+of mankind, permit pre-marital intercourse of both sexes. A. C. Hollis
+(1909, pp. 16, 77) says of the Nandi; "The unmarried warriors, as many
+as ten, sleep in the huts called _sigiroinet_, where the girls visit
+them and remain with them a few days, living with them in free love."
+Married women are not allowed to enter these huts. When the warriors go
+away for a time or go to war, their sweethearts keep the huts in order.
+Real "family life" is unknown, for the bigger boys and girls also live
+alone in special huts or together with the old women; the little boys
+who serve the warriors sleep in their houses. There is no publicly
+recognised punishment for adultery; but if a husband discovers another
+man not belonging to his _mat_ (one of the subdivisions of each of the
+seven age classes) with his wife or one of his wives, he beats him
+severely. Adultery is also not considered wrong when it concerns a
+couple that have previously lived together in free love in the warriors'
+house, even when the woman does not belong to a _mat_ comrade. When a
+Nandi travels and wishes to remain somewhere overnight, he must first of
+all apply to another member of his _mat_ in the place. If there is one,
+and both men are married, the latter gives hospitality to the guest,
+commissions his wife to fulfil his wishes, and leaves the hut in order
+to sleep elsewhere. The wife pours water over the hands of the guest,
+brings him a stool and food, puts his weapons into a place of safety,
+and spends the night with him. Should there be no member of his _mat_ in
+the place, the traveller betakes himself to a member of the nearest
+_mat_; and, after having explained the situation, he is treated exactly
+as if both men belonged to the same _mat_. Members of different age
+classes do not offer each other hospitality or expect it. If the
+traveller is unmarried, he spends the night in the warriors' hut.
+Children born before marriage are killed by the Nandis, only one group
+making an exception to this rule.
+
+The Masai have when travelling the same customs as the Nandis. Sexual
+intercourse with a girl or woman of the same age class is not considered
+wrong. A warrior marries the girl he makes pregnant. Children born
+before marriage are considered a disgrace. A person who has relations
+with a woman belonging to the paternal age class must beg pardon of the
+older men and give as reparation two oxen or a commensurate quantity of
+honey wine. An old man who has sexual intercourse with his daughter or
+with another girl of her age is severely punished, if the affair comes
+to light: he is beaten, his kraal is pulled down, and his cattle are
+killed _ad libitum_ (Hollis, 1905, pp. 287, 312, 313).
+
+Of the conditions existing among the Baganda in East Africa the
+missionary John Roscoe (p. 10) gives us the following picture: "Neither
+the men nor the women controlled their sexual cravings unless
+insurmountable obstacles came in the way. Women, however, could only
+attain their aims by stratagem. If an unmarried girl became pregnant,
+the guilty man had to pay a fine, and he was induced to marry the girl.
+If a husband discovered his wife with another man, he had the right to
+kill them both. Nevertheless the married women kept in strict seclusion
+used to receive lovers, which even the most dreadful punishments for
+adultery could not prevent." It has to be noticed that the social
+formation of classes was already greatly developed among the Baganda at
+the time described by Roscoe. The wealthy men were in a position to have
+as many wives as they could support, so that there was a scarcity of
+women for the remaining men. It is not remarkable, therefore, that these
+tried to meet this fact by force and cunning. Although married women
+were secluded, single girls had a fair amount of liberty.
+
+Among the Bushmen of South Africa, now nearly extinct, husband and wife
+remained faithful to each other for life. But if they became tired of
+each other, no hindrance was put in the way of separation and
+remarriage. A second husband, however, or a second wife was most
+probably never accepted into the family; their passionate temperament
+was against it (Theal).
+
+
+About the Indians of North-west Brazil Koch-Grünberg relates: "Whilst
+young girls enjoy the greatest liberty, their purity not being
+necessarily above suspicion, marriage itself is generally on a higher
+plane; a married couple are rarely unfaithful to each other."
+Koch-Grünberg has never noticed even the semblance of indecent behaviour
+between married people, nor under normal circumstances any serious
+quarrels or ugly scenes. The same or similar conditions prevail nearly
+all over South America where European influence is not yet predominant.
+Karl von den Steinen (p. 501) mentions one exception to this rule. The
+Bororos, who live on the St. Lourenco river, and who were visited by
+him, have greatly degenerated, thanks to the civilising arts of the
+Brazilians. A marriage is concluded without any formality and without
+the consent of the parents. The young wife remains with her children in
+her parents' house. The young husband only spends the night there;
+during the day he lives in the men's house when he is not hunting. The
+young couple have a hearth for themselves, the grandmother with the
+grandchildren sitting somewhat apart. Thus it remains up to the death of
+the grandparents. The grandmother suckles the child when the young wife
+accompanies her husband on the hunt or fetches palm nuts from the woods;
+she still has milk when her children marry. Young unmarried men live
+together in special men's houses. They look out betimes for wives. There
+are two customs which deserve our interest. A girl's ear-lobes are bored
+by her future husband. If he himself does not marry her, his son does
+so. Furthermore, the man who puts the penis cuff on a boy becomes
+related to him and marries his sister or his aunt. Girls were taken to
+the men's house quite openly by day, or were caught at night. These
+girls were not married to one man; any children born were fathered on
+those men with whom the girl had had relations. This state of affairs is
+the result of the overweening power wielded by the older men. The women
+are their possession, and a regular income of arrows and trinkets is
+earned by hiring out the girls to the men's house. Unnatural intercourse
+is not unknown in the men's house, but it occurs only when there is an
+exceptionally great scarcity of girls. According to a statement of a
+native, the same conditions prevail in the remote villages, where some
+only of the members of a tribe have permanent possession of the women.
+But such information given by the natives must be accepted with great
+caution. No similar customs have become known anywhere else in South
+America.
+
+In North America the young people also had great liberty, but the
+married women dared not break their faith. Among many tribes, especially
+the nomadic hunting tribes, there existed patriarchal conditions, with
+complete subordination of the women. Intercourse with any one but their
+rightful husbands was taken in bad part. Nowadays the Indians of North
+America, with the exception of a small remnant living in the Canadian
+Tundra, have come under the influence of Christianity. The probable
+existence of an earlier sex communism among the North American Indians
+has been described in full by L. H. Morgan.
+
+F. Nansen reports that among the Christian Eskimos of the west coast of
+Greenland the girls do not consider pre-marital motherhood as a
+disgrace. The green hair-band which the unmarried mothers have to wear
+is put on by them long before it is necessary. The young Greenland girls
+do not deem any concealment of their love affairs necessary. In East
+Greenland, which has not yet been reached by Christianity, it is
+customary for a man who wants a wife simply to abduct the girl from her
+house or tent. The abduction is often only a pretence, for the couple
+have settled it all between themselves. Formerly this form of marriage
+was in vogue all over Greenland. The relations look on quietly, for it
+is all a private affair of those immediately concerned. Should the girl
+really not wish to have the suitor, she will defend herself until she
+quietens down or the wooer renounces her. Divorce also takes place
+without any difficulties; but generally the marriage is continued if
+there is a child, particularly if it should be a boy. If a man covets
+the wife of another, he will take her without any hesitation, if he is
+the stronger. Among the non-Christian Eskimos most of the skilful
+hunters have two wives, but never more. The first wife is generally
+looked upon as the superior. Temporary exchange of wives occurs up to
+the present time even among the Christians on the west coast, especially
+when the people have to spend the summer hunting the reindeer in the
+interior of the country. As a rule, married people live on exceptionally
+good terms with each other.
+
+Among the Netchili Eskimos near the Magnetic North Pole, however,
+conjugal harmony is, according to Roald Amundsen, not of the best. As a
+rule, the wife only escapes being beaten when she is stronger than the
+man. Exchange of women is quite common. Most of the girls are destined
+from birth for certain men, though sometimes things do not turn out as
+the parents wish it. When the girl is fourteen years old she seeks out
+her bridegroom, or he comes to her. There is no wedding. Amundsen doubts
+whether the couple have, as a rule, any tender feelings towards each
+other. The girl is just given to the man by the parents, the man
+marrying her in order to have one more domestic drudge, for in reality
+the wife is nothing more nor less than a domestic animal. Most Eskimos
+offer their wives to any one.
+
+Among the Kamchadales, Chukchee, Jukagiers and Tunguses of North Asia
+the girls have pre-marital liberty, and there exists no marital
+fidelity. W. Bogoras (p. 602) describes "group marriage" among the
+Chukchee, which seems to be an institution similar to the Australian
+_pirauru_. There are groups, consisting of up to ten men or women, that
+have the right to sexual intercourse with each other; "but this right is
+comparatively rarely taken advantage of, only when a man has for some
+reason to visit the camp of one of his group companions. The host then
+gives up to him his place in the sleeping room, and if possible leaves
+the house for the night, going, for instance, to his flock. Afterwards
+the host generally seeks an opportunity of returning the visit, so as to
+exercise his rights in turn." The sex communities are generally composed
+of neighbours and friends. The offspring of brothers and sisters in the
+second and third generations are, as a rule, united in the same sex
+community, but not brothers. Bogoras thinks that the communities were
+originally limited to members of a group who were related, and were only
+later extended to other people; the ceremonies at the formation of a
+group seem to imply this. The persons concerned bring sacrifices and
+anoint themselves with blood, first in the one and then in the other
+camp. The admission into a group of persons who greatly diverge from
+each other in age is not welcomed, and single men are also not willingly
+admitted. The inhabitants of one and the same camp are seldom willing
+to form a sex community, for reciprocal relationship is intended as an
+exception rather than the rule, though there are deviations from this
+rule. Every individual family of the Chukchee belongs in practice to
+some sex community. Should a family keep to themselves, it would
+indicate that they had no friends and no protectors in time of need. The
+children of members of a sex community are reckoned as near blood
+relations, and may not marry one another.
+
+It is quite different among the Koryaks, the neighbours of the Chukchee.
+They demand abstinence from the girls before marriage, and there is
+rarely any transgression against this law. Pregnancy before marriage is
+a disgrace, and unmarried mothers are forced to give birth in the
+wilderness. Children born before marriage are killed. After the advent
+of puberty the girls sleep in their "combinations," which are fashioned
+in such a way as to exclude undesirable intercourse. Intercourse between
+engaged couples is also looked upon as sinful. Sometimes the girl lives
+with relatives in another place for a time, or is kept hidden until the
+bridegroom works off at her parents' home the service which he owes to
+them. Incest is strictly avoided, for it is feared that the evil-doers
+must die in consequence of it. The various prohibitions existing at the
+present day with regard to the marriage of certain consanguineous or
+adopted relations are only of recent date; they were unknown formerly
+(Jochelson, p. 733). Perhaps the other existing sexual customs are also
+the result of missionary activities.
+
+The above examples, chosen at random, plainly show that the conceptions
+of sexual morality generally held by primitive people are different from
+those prevalent under European civilisation. Very often these primitive
+customs have been greatly influenced or altogether exterminated by the
+example or the power of the European colonists. Whether this was of
+benefit to the races cannot be discussed here.
+
+After all, European morality is not so very superior to that of the
+"savages." As Georg Friederici (p. 85) pertinently says: "Almost
+everywhere in our society we shut our eyes to the fact that our young
+men do what is forbidden to them, but is permitted to the Melanesian and
+Polynesian girls. We admit the State regulation of prostitution or, to
+avoid greater scandal, even street prostitution; yet we set out in moral
+indignation to reform the customs of primitive peoples which have proved
+their value and are consistent with their moral laws. Having nothing
+better to put in their place, we merely introduce among them what
+happens to be our own canker."
+
+Everywhere the fight against the traditional moral ideals has resulted
+merely in the introduction of prostitution, with all its corruption. We
+should therefore refrain from reforms that are misplaced, and should not
+attack customs that cannot be replaced by better ones, and that do not
+stand in the way of colonisation.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+COURTSHIP CUSTOMS
+
+
+Very often we find among primitive people that marriage is preceded by a
+pretended bride capture, though the couple themselves and their
+relations have agreed to the union. This gave occasion to the belief
+that the capture of women was formerly a widespread and original form of
+marriage. The pretended capture does not, however, seem to imply the
+existence of true "marriage by capture," but rather seems to indicate
+the fact that formerly brides were often given to men against their will
+and had to be forced to go with them. The fact that often the abducting
+bridegroom is in fun beaten by the brothers or other male relations of
+the girl does not exclude this conclusion, for the thrashing may be a
+later embellishment of the game of abduction, its purpose being to
+increase the pleasure of the guests by satisfying their spectacular
+desire. It is worthy of note that in Assam among the matriarchal Garos
+there is a pretended capture of the bridegroom. It would be a mistake to
+conclude from this that formerly mother-rule actually existed among the
+Garos. In the report on the ethnographical survey of the Indian Central
+Provinces (V., p. 53) it is stated that it was formerly customary among
+the Kulams to capture men for those of their girls who would otherwise
+have remained unmarried.
+
+Among the peoples whose girls are married at a very young age no wooing
+is customary, as, _e.g._, among the Dravidian Indians, the Australians,
+their near relations, and others. Marriage in these cases takes place
+without any or with very little ceremony (Jagor, Spencer, Howitt). It
+has been impossible so far in India to check the evil custom of child
+marriage; on the contrary, it is becoming more prevalent among the
+animistic tribes.
+
+Child engagements rather than child marriages are prevalent among many
+peoples, as among the Asiatic Polar races and the Eskimos of North
+America. But among most of these peoples free courtship exists. Thus
+Jochelson writes about the Koryaks in the extreme north-east of Asia:
+"If a Koryak falls in love with a girl, he generally sends a match-maker
+to the father of the girl; but this is not always the case, and
+particularly so if the parents do not agree to the son's choice.
+Frequently the young man, without telling anybody of his intentions,
+goes to the girl's home and does all the work there which is seemly for
+a man. The father-in-law accepts his services also in silence. If he is
+pleased with the bridegroom, he entrusts him with commissions; otherwise
+he lets him feel that he must leave the house. The bridegroom's service
+lasts from six months to three years. This service cannot be conceived
+as 'payment' for the bride, for the wealthier of the Konaks could pay
+with reindeer instead of working off the price of the bride. Besides,
+the bride receives a dowry of reindeer, which is worth much more than
+the service given by the son-in-law. This service is only an empty
+formality, if the wooer is an older man. It rather seems as if the main
+purpose of the service is to put the bridegroom to the test, for it is
+not the actual work done that is of most importance, but the harsh
+treatment that he has to endure and the meagre and laborious life that
+he is forced to lead. The service comes to an end whenever the
+father-in-law decides. The man then leads his bride home without any
+formality, although she at first pretends to struggle against it; she
+gives up this pretence as soon as the man succeeds in touching her sex
+organs. Should a girl really not care for the man intended for her, she
+will attempt to escape in reality; but she is ultimately forced by her
+parents into marriage. Often, however, the girl's inclination is taken
+into consideration before she is given into marriage."
+
+Among the inland tribes of Borneo young people get married as soon as
+they have reached maturity. The young man sends a confidential friend to
+the parents of the girl desired, who, as a matter of form, make
+objections and invent all manner of excuses. Only after the second or
+third visit of the go-between is the matter taken at all seriously and a
+decision arrived at. If the parents agree, they receive from the
+go-between presents sent by the bridegroom, and the girl sends her lover
+strings of pearls. The time of the new moon is considered the best time
+for marriage. The wedding day is kept count of by both parties having
+strings with an equal number of knots, from which one knot is cut off
+each day. The marriage is celebrated with festivities, the bridegroom
+and guests appearing in war dress; there is great feasting and much
+ceremony (Hose and McDougall, II., pp. 171 _et seq._).
+
+Among the Mafulu, a hill tribe of New Guinea, child engagements are
+frequent, but the courting of adults seems to predominate. R. W.
+Williamson writes (p. 170) that in one case known to him a girl of
+sixteen or seventeen years old was looked upon as married to the yet
+unborn son of a chief. When the boy died in early childhood, the girl
+was reckoned to be his widow. If a young Mafulu youth wishes to marry
+and does not know where to look for a bride, he will sometimes light a
+fire outside the village; he will wait to see in which direction the
+next gust of wind will blow the smoke, and there he will turn to seek a
+wife. Often the youth carries about with him a bag with small pieces of
+wood and stone. He rubs a piece of tobacco between two pieces and sends
+it to the girl of his choice by one of her female relatives. He believes
+that by this procedure the girl's heart will be turned towards him
+through some mysterious power. The young men often obtain the necessary
+pieces of wood or stone from a magician. The offer of marriage is also
+made through a third person, generally a woman. The consent of the
+parents is necessary; the marriage takes place without any special
+ceremony.
+
+Among the pigmy races of Asia and Africa child marriage exists side by
+side with adult courtship. Of the Negritos of Zambales (Philippine
+Islands) W. A. Reed (p. 56) says that the suitor has to pay a price for
+the bride. The parents try to bargain for as much as possible, and it is
+only when these demands have been fulfilled that the daughter has any
+choice in the matter. The young man who has found a suitable girl
+informs his family of the fact; they decide how much the girl is worth
+and how much must be paid for her. Thereupon the suitor or a relative
+inquires of the girl's family whether they agree to the marriage. If
+they do, the purchase price is brought within a few days, and in case
+this proves satisfactory to the parents these give their consent. In
+many cases the girls are already in early youth promised to the boys
+chosen by the parents, but the children remain with their parents until
+maturity. Sometimes little girls are given to grown-up men, so that the
+difference in ages is great, and the girls very unwillingly obey their
+parents' will. When two families have daughters _and_ sons the girls are
+exchanged as wives without either of the families paying a price. It is
+said that slaves and stolen strange children are given as payment for
+the bride. It is doubtful, however, according to W. A. Reed, whether
+this still occurs. In many parts of the country the settlement of the
+price is followed by feasting and dancing, at which pretended capture of
+the bride plays a great _rôle_.
+
+Among the Hamites of East Africa the custom exists of assigning girls
+still far from mature as wives to certain adult men. If, _e.g._, a Masai
+wishes to marry, he courts a very young girl, whose father receives
+presents repeatedly. After the ritual operation is performed upon the
+girl the young man goes to live in the house of his father-in-law,
+bringing with him as gifts three cows and two oxen. When the time comes
+for taking the bride home, an additional present of three sheep is made.
+The girl puts on her bridal dress and follows the man without further
+ceremony. A man who possesses a big herd of cattle can have many wives,
+some rich men having as many as ten or twenty wives (Hollis, 1905, pp.
+302, 303).
+
+Among the negroes adult people have the right to choose their mates,
+though choice is restricted through various traditional considerations.
+Child engagements are not uncommon. Thus among the Bantus it is even
+to-day often customary to assign children at an early age to each other
+for marriage. Weule (p. 58) says of the Jaos in East Africa: "It is a
+general custom for a woman who has just given birth to a child to say to
+a pregnant neighbour: 'I have a daughter' (or 'a son'); 'if your child
+proves to be a son' (or 'a daughter'), 'they shall marry each other.'
+The other generally agrees, and this arrangement is adhered to later.
+For adults there exist no special rules in the choice of mates nowadays,
+and it is doubtful whether such existed previously. If a serf wants to
+marry, he tells his father, who informs the master. The latter then
+speaks with the father of the chosen girl. If the father agrees, the
+daughter is brought in and asked for her opinion. If she is not willing
+to marry the suitor, the affair is at an end. If she agrees, the
+relatives, with the master at the head, consult together, and the
+decision is then made. Among the Mokondes in the north of the Rowuma
+river the young man looking out for marriage lets his parents negotiate
+with the girl's parents. If they come to an agreement, the bridegroom
+gives the bride's parents a present, which makes the affair binding.
+Among the more conservative classes the eldest brother of the girl's
+mother also has a voice in the matter, getting a share of the
+bridegroom's presents. In olden times a Makonde boy lived after his
+circumcision with one of his maternal uncles, into whose family he
+afterwards married. If there were no girls in the family, he waited for
+a cousin. The young man had to do all the work at his uncle's house
+until the daughter grew up. Among the Makuas the suitor himself goes to
+the girl's father, who again must get the consent of the mother's eldest
+brother. Often all the brothers, instead of one, must be consulted. The
+suitor goes the next day for his answer. If the answer is 'Yes,' the
+time for the wedding is appointed, at which well-meant speeches are
+made, and advice is given to the bridal pair. As a rule, the couple are
+more or less of the same age, but it sometimes happens that young girls
+are married by men much older than themselves."
+
+Of the Hottentots Schultze (p. 297) writes: "A man who wishes to get a
+confession of love from the girl of his choice gives her a little piece
+of wood. If the two have come to an agreement, they break it, each
+holding at one end, and then they throw the broken pieces at each
+other's chest. The couple then commence courting, during which time they
+are not allowed to speak a word with each other or to reach each other
+anything. An intermediary acts between them for this purpose.
+Transgressions have to be expiated by presents. It is all an amorous
+game of hide-and-seek, which has hardened into a rigid custom. It can
+continue thus for months or for a year, and longer, before the affair
+ripens. This can happen in two ways: either openly by the parents'
+consent being asked, or secretly by means of a symbolic action which
+expresses the girl's agreement to complete surrender. The young man
+draws off one of his skin shoes and throws it to the girl in private. If
+she disregards the shoe, the proposal for an early union is rejected; in
+the contrary case she gives the shoe back. When the wedding is to come
+off, the parents negotiate with each other for some time, but more in
+pretence than real earnest. When an agreement has been reached, the
+marriage is celebrated with feasting."
+
+Among the Indians marriage is entered into by free courtship, though
+girls in particular, just as with us, are greatly dependent upon the
+will of their parents. The girls marry sometimes at a very early age,
+but marriage before maturity seems non-existent.
+
+Koch-Grünberg (I., pp. 181, 182) says of the Siusis that the choice of
+partners is not always the affair of those directly concerned. Often the
+parents, or the father alone, choose the husband for the daughter. The
+parents have no such strong influence on the son's choice. The wedding
+is celebrated by dancing, which goes on for several days at the house of
+the bride's father. At the end of the festivities the latter makes a
+long speech to his son-in-law, and gives him over his daughter as wife,
+wherewith the marriage is consummated. The young wife goes to her
+husband's house, which, as a rule, also serves as the home of her
+parents-in-law. The trousseau is generally small.
+
+Among the Kobeua Indians of the Upper Rio Negro a young man wishing to
+marry asks the permission of the father of his bride-elect. If he
+consents, the bridegroom remains for five days in the house of his
+parents-in-law, and a big dance and banquet is held, in which many
+guests take part. At the end of the feast the father gives over his
+daughter to his son-in-law, whereupon the couple go off, the father
+breaking out into a ceremonial lament. Amongst some races capture of
+women is said to be still customary. In any case the wife has to be from
+another tribe. Evidence of woman capture is still to be found in the
+tradition of the tribe (Koch-Grünberg, II., pp. 144, 145).
+
+The Bakairis have no wedding celebrations. The marriage is discussed by
+the parents. If they come to an agreement, the bride's father receives
+some trifles as a present. The bridegroom hangs up his hammock above
+that of the girl, and everything is settled. It is only where the tribe
+has fallen into decay that great differences in the ages of the married
+people occur, and that older men in particular have the privilege of
+possessing young wives (compare Chapter II.). Divorce can be got without
+difficulty, even when the man is unwilling.
+
+Among the Paressis the marriage is arranged by the parents on both
+sides, and the bride, after having received a few presents, is led by
+her parents without any formality to her bridegroom's hammock (von den
+Steinen, pp. 331, 434).
+
+The custom of paying a price for the bride, prevalent among many races
+all over the world, is frequently spoken of as marriage by purchase. The
+price is very varied, and its value very unequal, but as a rule it is
+relatively small, and not infrequently it is so small as to have no
+economic value for the parents-in-law. Among the animistic tribes of
+British India, who, as a rule, pay a price for the bride, the sum may
+be as much as 200 rupees. Generally more is paid for a virgin than for a
+widow; but there are some Indian castes of manual labourers among whom
+the woman takes a share in the industrial work, and among whom the
+reverse is the case. It sometimes happens that the price is adjusted
+according to the age of the bride. Often brides are exchanged between
+two families, so that the payment of a price is dispensed with.
+"Marriage by service" still persists in various places, especially in
+Asia. Here the future son-in-law, instead of paying a price for the
+bride, has to work a certain number of years for the father of the
+bride. Among most primitive people the woman represents labour power in
+the house, as the men, either wholly or to a large extent, occupy
+themselves with social concerns (E. Hahn). Domestic prosperity depends
+wholly on the women's work. Thus it can easily be seen how the custom
+came about of demanding some service from the man who wanted a wife.
+Real purchase of a wife occurs only exceptionally among primitive
+people. It is never the rule, nor is the woman a real object of barter.
+If actual sale of women occurs in some cases, it is only an exception.
+Such cases are only frequent where the influence of Islam is most
+pronounced.
+
+The bride price is wholly or partly paid back should the wife run away,
+or even if she meets with an early death. If there are sisters, the
+forsaken husband or widower may sometimes forego the restitution of the
+price paid and accept one of the sisters as his wife.
+
+In India a price for the bridegroom is paid, not only among the upper
+castes of the civilised races, but also occasionally among the lower
+castes and among the primitive natives.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MARRIAGE
+
+
+By far the greatest number of primitive peoples are monogamous. Only in
+relatively few cases is there polyandry. Polygyny often occurs among
+persons who are specially favoured, either economically or socially; but
+it is nowhere the form of marriage of the majority of the population.
+The polygyny reported among certain tribes generally refers only to
+chiefs, magic doctors, or some other special persons who have more than
+one wife. Sexual group communism at the side of monogamy or polyandry
+has been found in various places, but it is wrong to speak of it as
+"group marriage." This is evident from the previously quoted examples of
+the _pirauru_ in Australia, the sex communities among the Chukchee, the
+Nandi, Masai, and others. It is possible, of course, that monogamy which
+now co-exists with certain cases of sex communism may have been a later
+addition, but this is not proven. It is more likely that the pairing
+instinct (not identical with the instinct of procreation) is
+characteristic of our sub-human ancestors. In fact, even in the animal
+world there are numerous examples of monogamy (P. Deegener).
+
+It has been established that in Africa, Indonesia, Melanesia, and
+elsewhere, the small children remain with their parents, while the
+bigger children are lodged together in special boys' and girls' houses,
+and are, as it were, brought up communally. The relationship of the
+children to their own parents is not notably closer than that between
+them and other persons of the same age class. We must not look upon this
+child communism solely as a curiosity, but as the relic of a very
+ancient primitive institution. Most likely there is some connection
+between child communism and the interchange of children which is
+customary, for example, among the Dravidian races of India
+("Ethnographical Survey of the Central India Agency") and on the Murray
+Islands, in the Torres Straits (Australia). According to W. H. R. Rivers
+(1907, p. 318), the interchange of children between families is very
+frequent here without the peoples being able to give any explanation of
+it. Nor do other social and religious institutions offer any indication
+as to the origin of this custom. Rivers surmises that it has been
+preserved from a social organisation in which "children were largely
+common to the women of the group so far as nurture was concerned." At
+any rate, this adoption _en masse_ will help civilised man to understand
+that less civilised peoples have ideas about parenthood different from
+those that exist among us, and also that group motherhood is not absurd.
+The existence of group motherhood among primitive communities--whose
+members were much more dependent on each other in the struggle for
+existence than are the members of much more advanced societies--must
+often have been of considerable advantage to these communities. On the
+assumption of "group motherhood" it is easily explainable that children
+use the same mode of address for their own sisters and brothers as for
+all the other children of the group, and that all the women of equal
+ages are called "mother." Hence the classificatory system of
+relationship ceases to be puzzling. It becomes clear why under this
+system whole groups of persons designate each other as husbands and
+wives, and why the children of all the persons of these groups call each
+other brothers and sisters, etc. The assumption is justified that man in
+a low state of civilisation knew only group relationship; further
+distinctions were derived only later from these relationships, the
+present-day classificatory system arising ultimately from them. Among
+the peoples where Rivers could examine this system there were
+indications of a development in the direction of using it rather for the
+distinction of real blood and marriage relationship than for the
+distinction of social position, for which it was originally intended. A
+connection between marriage regulation and the classificatory system of
+relationships exists not only among the Dravidian races, but also among
+the North American Indians, and certainly among other branches of the
+human race. Rivers says: "The classificatory system in one form or
+another is spread so widely over the world as to make it probable that
+it had its origin in some universal stage of social development"; and
+further he says: "The kind of society which most readily accounts for
+its chief features is one characterised by a form of marriage in which
+definite groups of men are the husbands of definite groups of women."
+Rivers does not mean thereby institutions like the _pirauru_, but a
+permanent group marriage. It may be objected against this latter
+assumption that permanent (not occasional) sex communism does not
+necessarily need to be connected with communism of children. It is quite
+possible that monogamy and child communism may exist side by side, as,
+_e.g._, among the Murray Islanders.
+
+But even if group marriage did really exist in some places, and if the
+existence of child communism would prove this, it still cannot be
+asserted that it is a phase of development through which all human races
+have passed. For the assumption of a parallel development of all races
+is untenable. It is true the basic psychic organisation is the same for
+all human beings, being due to the common descent of mankind. But owing
+to the continual adaptation to changing environmental conditions, it was
+not preserved, but underwent different changes. There is no ground for
+the assumption that, while environmental changes brought about bodily
+modifications, mental changes did not take place also, therewith leading
+at the same time to differences in social culture. On the contrary, we
+must rather assume that together with anthropological variations among
+the races there also arose variations in social development, the
+different civilisations resulting from differentiated mental
+dispositions and deviating more and more from each other. Certain
+elements of the original primitive civilisation have been preserved in
+the various later developments, but not everywhere the same elements,
+nor were the differentiations that did take place all of the same
+degree. Certain fundamental conceptions may remain unchanged for long
+periods, and may produce analogous phenomena in different civilisations.
+Since deviations from monogamy are extremely rare among primitive
+peoples, the assumption is justified that monogamy is one of the
+fundamental factors of human civilisation. How could its practically
+universal occurrence be explained otherwise? There can be no question of
+convergence, nor has a world-wide transmission of a cultural element
+that has arisen later been proved up to the present.
+
+The opinion, first expressed by L. H. Morgan, that the classificatory
+relationship system is evidence of the existence of group marriage (not
+merely in the form of _pirauru_ existing at the side of monogamy), is
+contradicted by the etymological meaning of the terms used by primitive
+people, which are generally translated by "father," "mother,"
+"grandfather," "brother," "sister," "child," etc. These collective names
+show nowhere an allusion to procreation, but only to age differences:
+father and mother are the "elder," the "big ones," the "grown-ups"; the
+children are the "little ones," the "young ones"; brothers and sisters
+are the "comrades." We often find that among the Australian negroes and
+the South Sea islanders no distinction is made between father and
+mother. All persons of an older generation of a horde or a totem (or of
+a phratry respectively) are simply the "elder," the "big ones." If a
+native wishes to indicate more clearly the sex of a person of an older
+class, he must add the word "man" or "woman" (or the adjective "male" or
+"female"). It often happens that grandparents and grandchildren use the
+same form of address, which in no way refers to descent (Cunow). Other
+facts point to the same conclusion. Where the _pirauru_ exists in
+Australia, the same form of address is used for persons standing in
+_pirauru_ relationship to the speaker as for members of the same age
+class who have no such relationship. This could not be so if the
+appellation had originated from common sexual relationship. Cunow
+rightly concludes: "Sexual communities can be proved to exist here and
+there among primitive peoples, but the nomenclature of the
+classificatory relationships has not grown out of such group
+relationships. These so-called group marriages are rather adventitious
+growths, playing only a secondary _rôle_ in the history of the family."
+
+Buschan (1912, p. 254) looks upon the pre-marital sexual freedom of
+girls among many primitive peoples (most probably among the majority of
+them) as a relic of communal marriage from earlier times. He assumes
+that the girls had promiscuous relationships with the other sex. This,
+however, is not the case. As a rule, couples meet together for a time,
+and only rarely does a person have relationship with several persons at
+the same time. The conditions are essentially the same as in Europe,
+except that amongst "savages" a love affair going as far as intercourse
+is not considered immoral. The assumption of many authors that man is
+polygynous is far from being proved, at least not in the sense that the
+majority of men are inclined to have relationship with several women at
+the same time. It cannot, however, be disputed that after some time the
+relationship between two people tends to lose its attraction, often
+causing a breaking of the marriage vow.
+
+There is a custom among many peoples that a man's widow falls to his
+younger brother (or cousin)--the _levirate_. According to another
+custom, a man has the right to marry the sisters of his wife. Both these
+customs have been explained as being relics of a form of marriage in
+which brothers married several sisters or sisters married brothers at
+the same time (Frazer, II., p. 144). But it seems much more likely that
+we have here before us merely a case of property rights.
+
+Even if constancy in marriage is not the rule, especially among
+primitive people, yet we must still regard the permanent living together
+of one man and one woman as a state that has always prevailed amongst
+human beings (Westermarck). Many of the speculations, at first sight so
+learned, about the apparently intricate paths in the development of
+marriage, remain merely speculations which cannot stand the test of
+modern ethnological research. Heinrich Schurtz (p. 175) makes the
+pertinent remark that nothing excited the hostile camps of the
+sociological idealists and naturalists more than the dispute about
+promiscuity in primitive times. While the one party painted with zest
+the indiscriminate and irregular sex relationship of primitive races,
+claiming it as an established original stage in human development, the
+adherents of idealism rose in indignation against a theory that places
+primitive man far below the level of the higher animals, and that leaves
+the riddle unsolved how such a chaos could lead to the idea of sexual
+purity and a spiritualisation of the sexual impulse. In this battle for
+and against promiscuity even facts were unfortunately too often not
+respected, attempts being made to disregard them at any cost. This
+cannot be good for the ultimate victory of truth. Facts should not be
+passed over, but should be taken into full consideration. In this
+conflict of opinions the institution of _pirauru_ especially has fared
+particularly badly. Some anthropologists wanted to do away with it
+altogether at any price (for instance, Josef Müller); others drew
+conclusions from it that are utterly unjustified. But even if this were
+not so, even if the _pirauru_ could be used as a proof of previous
+sexual promiscuity, it still does not follow that it was a general
+custom in man, for the majority of the peoples show no trace of it.
+
+First of all, it must be noticed that even the _pirauru_ possesses
+various restrictions upon marriage with persons outside certain groups,
+which alone exclude unrestrained promiscuity. Furthermore, individual
+marriage, the binding force of which is undoubtedly even stronger and
+closer, is well known to exist beside it. There is a good deal of
+probability for the assumption of Schurtz that marriage regulations
+establishing the right of several men to one wife may first have arisen
+from mere friendly acts, or the original sexual licentiousness may have
+developed occasionally under specially favourable circumstances into the
+institution of _pirauru_, while at other places such a systematic
+development did not take place. It is easily to be understood that lower
+civilisations will show a looser standard of the marriage bond than
+those where many interests of a rich cultural development require the
+strengthening of this bond. Sexual needs may also have brought about the
+origin of the _pirauru_ institutions. Thus there exist in Australia
+tribes among which the loan of wives was customary owing to the scarcity
+of women. There is only one step from this state of affairs to the
+_pirauru_. Among many tribes complicated marriage restrictions make a
+"legitimate" marriage very difficult, and this may easily lead to other
+sex relationships taking the place of marriage.
+
+It is a mistake to assume hastily that customs among primitive people
+that appear strange to us must therefore be ancient and be relics of a
+primitive state. Every primitive race has a long history behind it, and
+it is not likely that it has remained static all the time. Primitive
+people are not stationary in development; there is much change among
+them in the course of generations. This applies also to customs and
+habits which seem absolutely stable. External conditions may produce new
+developments, or result in foreign influences. Not everything,
+therefore, that is peculiar to uncivilised races of the present day must
+be looked upon as primitive.
+
+Polyandry deserves our special consideration. As a recognised social
+institution it has so far been definitely established only among the
+Indian peoples and castes, as well as in Tibet, on the borders of
+Northern India. In exceptional cases polyandry occurs among the Eskimos
+and the Asiatic Polar races. The older accounts of polyandry occurring
+in Australia are not confirmed by the new ethnographical literature. The
+reports about polyandry among the American Indians are also incorrect.
+John Roscoe (1907, pp. 99 _et seq._) has proved its existence among the
+Bahima and Baziba tribes of Central Africa, though here polyandry is not
+the rule, but is only practised occasionally. If a man is poor, if he
+cannot get together the number of cows required for the bride price, or
+if he is unable to support a wife, he can combine with one or several of
+his brothers and take a wife in common with them. It is easy to get the
+women for this purpose. Furthermore, among these tribes the housewife
+may be claimed by a guest, while exchange of wives also occurs.
+
+In India polyandry is prevalent among the peoples of the Himalayan
+mountains and among some Southern Indian tribes. Some cases of this
+curious form of marriage are already mentioned in the ancient Indian
+literature. It may be assumed, therefore, that it was more prevalent
+formerly than at present. This institution was certainly never very
+general nor of great importance in the life of the people of India. At
+the present time it is restricted to a number of comparatively small
+tribes and castes. Two forms of polyandry can be distinguished among
+them, namely, the fraternal form, where several brothers or cousins have
+one wife in common, and the matriarchal form, where a woman has several
+husbands, not necessarily related to each other.
+
+In Northern India polyandry is general among the Tibetans and Bhotias of
+the Himalayan border districts. Here, when the oldest of several
+brothers takes a wife, she has the right--but not the duty--to have
+sexual relationship with the other brothers living in the same
+household. If a younger brother also marries, the other still younger
+brothers have the choice in which household they wish to live. The
+surplus women become nuns. This system is said to be due to the poverty
+of the country. The Himalayan peoples, being intent on preventing the
+increase of the population and a further reduction of the means of
+existence, consign many women to celibacy and childlessness. Yet at the
+same time they make it possible, by this system, for the socially
+privileged man to satisfy his sexual needs. The children of polyandrous
+marriages belong, as a rule, legally to the oldest brother. But it also
+occurs that each brother in turn, according to his age, has a child
+assigned to him regardless of whether the brother concerned was on the
+spot at the time of the child's conception. Sometimes the mother has the
+right to name the father of each of her children.
+
+Fraternal polyandry also exists in Cashmir and among certain Sudra
+castes of the Punjab mountains. In the Punjab, however, the Rajputs and
+other castes of that neighbourhood are also influenced by polyandry. The
+ceremonies which take place at marriage in the Punjab bear traces of
+"marriage by capture." The dwellings of the polyandrous castes of this
+district consist of two rooms, one for the woman and one for the group
+of brothers. In Tibet, as also among the polyandrous Southern Indians,
+they have, however, mostly one room. The surplus women in the Punjab
+become objects of commerce. In the native State of Bashar, for instance,
+an active export trade is carried on with the surplus women, for whom
+sums up to 500 rupees are given.
+
+Among the Dyats in the Punjab, the Gudyars in the United Provinces, as
+among all the Hindu castes in the mountain districts of Ambala,
+polyandry existed until lately; but it is said not to do so there any
+longer. In Ambala not only brothers, but also first cousins, were
+considered to be husbands of the oldest brother's wife.
+
+Further, in East India the Santal caste (2,138,000 persons in Bengal,
+Bihar and Orissa) is the only community among which a similar custom
+exists. Among the Santals not only have the younger brothers access to
+the wife of the older brother, but the husband also may have relations
+with the younger sisters of his wife. This state of affairs may perhaps
+be looked upon as sexual communism among a small group. In Ladakh, too,
+and in other places of Cashmir, the wife common to several brothers may
+bring with her her sister into the marriage as co-partner. In the Punjab
+the fraternal husbands may also marry a second and third wife.
+
+Among Indian migratory labourers it seems to have been formerly the rule
+that the brother remaining at home served as a conjugal substitute for
+the husband temporarily absent. Nowadays this custom has almost
+disappeared.
+
+In Southern India polyandry is a recognised institution among the Toda
+and Kurumba of the Nilgiri mountains, as also among a number of the
+lower castes, especially on the coast of Malabar. Here polyandry and
+polygyny occasionally co-exist side by side.
+
+The polyandry among the Toda has been described in detail by W. H. R.
+Rivers. The whole tribe is divided into two endogamous groups, which,
+again, are split up into a number of exogamous sub-groups. The husbands
+shared in common by a woman are in most cases brothers; they are rarely
+other members of the same exogamous group and of the same age class.
+When the husbands are brothers, there never ensue any quarrels about
+access to the wife. All the brothers are reckoned as fathers of a child.
+Yet it often occurs that a Toda only calls one man his father. It is
+exclusively external circumstances that are here decisive; often one of
+the fathers is more influential and more respected than his brothers,
+and naturally the sons prefer to speak of him as their father. If only
+one of the fathers is alive, the offspring always describe him as their
+father. If the husbands are not real brothers, they live, like these, in
+one household, but the children are allotted to single definite fathers.
+That man is considered the father of a child who in the seventh month of
+the mother's pregnancy has gone with her through the ceremony of the
+presentation of bow and arrow (which is also customary in fraternal
+polyandry). The husbands may take turns in the practice of this ceremony
+at every pregnancy; it results, therefore, frequently that the first two
+or three children belong to one and the same man, the other husbands
+acquiring formal father-right only at the later births. If the husbands
+separate and give up the common household, each one takes with him the
+children belonging to him by right of the bow-and-arrow ceremony. As
+everywhere else in India, polyandry has fallen into decay among the
+Toda. It may happen that several men have in common several wives, or
+that of a group of brothers each has his own wife. But polyandry has
+remained up to the present time the prevalent form of marriage among
+these hill-folk. The surplus girls used formerly to be killed without
+exception; and it is certain, says Rivers, that girl infanticide is
+still practised to some extent, although the Toda themselves deny this.
+It must be noted that child marriage exists among the Toda.
+
+Matriarchal polyandry, which, in contradistinction to fraternal
+polyandry, goes with descent through the mother, still occurs among the
+Munduvars of the Travancore plateaus, the Nayars in some parts of
+Travancore and Cochin, the Western Kallan, and also among some other
+Southern Indian communities. Among numerous other races having mother
+descent, but not among all, relics of the former existence of
+matriarchal polyandry have been established. The secular authorities,
+and no less the European missions, are trying hard to exterminate this
+form of marriage.
+
+It is difficult to trace any connection between the polyandry in the
+north and that in the south of India. It is most probable that this
+custom was carried into Southern India by the Tibetan conquerors in
+ancient times. Many Southern Indian polyandrous races, like the Toda
+and the Nayar, are distinguished from their real Dravidian neighbours by
+their more powerful build, lighter colouring, higher noses, etc.
+Furthermore, the architecture of the Malabar temples bears traces of
+Tibetan influence. The demon masks carved thereon show almost the same
+faces as the Tibetan masks. Among the Kallan the tradition of northern
+descent has been preserved up to the present time, and they bury their
+dead with their faces turned towards the north.
+
+
+Exogamy is the custom which forbids the choice of partners for marriage
+within a certain group, and which has the effect of preventing near
+relations from sexual intercourse. It is found very frequently among
+primitive people, and is very prevalent, as Sir J. G. Frazer shows in
+his book "Totemism and Exogamy." This, however, does in no way justify
+the assumption that it was a general stage of civilisation of all
+mankind, and that it once existed even in those places where it is not
+found to-day.
+
+Although European travellers, colonists and scientists had long been in
+contact with coloured races, it was the Scotsman J. F. McLennan who
+first discovered the existence of exogamy. He was led to this discovery
+by the study of that peculiar marriage custom which consists in the
+pretence of forcible bride capture, though the marriage of the couple
+concerned has been agreed to by both families beforehand. McLennan
+tried to find an explanation for this custom, and came to the conclusion
+that capture of women, which only took place in pretence, must once have
+been practised in reality to a large extent. In searching for facts
+confirmatory of this assumption, he was struck by the fact that among
+savage and barbarous people the men married women not of their own, but
+of another, tribal group. He described this as "exogamy," in
+contradistinction to "endogamy," by which marriage partners are
+restricted in their choice to their own group. In a tribe or other
+social group both sexual arrangements may exist side by side, in such a
+manner that the tribe is closely endogamous and is divided into several
+exogamous groups.
+
+The theory put forward by McLennan as an explanation of the origin of
+exogamy is very simple and on superficial examination very convincing.
+He assumed that exogamy arose from a scarcity of women, which forced men
+to obtain wives by capture from other groups and thus gradually led to a
+general preference for strange women. The cause of this assumed scarcity
+of women was considered to be the infanticide of new-born females, which
+was carried on systematically, for savage people foresaw that in the
+struggle for existence it would be a hindrance to have a great number of
+women, who could take no share in the battle with enemies, and who
+presumably would contribute less to the food supply than the men.
+
+H. Cunow also traces back the origin of exogamy to the scarcity of
+women and wife capture. He starts from the assumption that among the
+Australian and other uncivilised races the number of persons in a horde
+is very limited. "If one assumes that the number of members of a horde
+is sixty, the youngest class would contain, according to present-day
+reckoning, about twenty-five persons, the middle class twenty, and the
+oldest class about fifteen persons. In the middle class there would,
+therefore, be only about ten women. Among these a young man entering the
+middle class would often not find a single woman that he could take for
+his wife, for, after pairing marriage had become general, the few
+existing women had already found a spouse; they had already been
+disposed of. There was nothing left for the young man but to capture a
+woman from a strange horde as soon as possible, or to try to persuade a
+comrade of the same age class to let him share in his marriage
+relationship on the understanding that his hunting bag would contribute
+towards the 'household of the three.' This multiple conjugal partnership
+is customary among most of the Australian tribes even to-day." To this
+it must be added that the man needs to show much less consideration for
+a captured strange woman than for one of his own tribe, who would run
+away if badly treated. Nor can the young man remain single, for he
+himself would then have to drag his property about, which would hinder
+him in the hunt and expose him to the ridicule of his companions. (In
+reality there are many unmarried men even in Australia.) The search for
+wives led ultimately, according to Cunow, to wife capture and exogamy.
+
+Infanticide, which McLennan assumes, is at present a rare exception
+among primitive people. Almost all explorers praise their great love for
+children, and even malformed children are not always killed. Even where
+infanticide does occur, the sex of the child is certainly not the factor
+that decides whether it is to be killed or not. The assumption that
+scarcity of women is brought about by girl infanticide is not correct.
+The female sex is, indeed, in the minority among uncivilised natives
+where they have been counted; but the excess of men is only small.
+Mutual capture of women could not alter this disparity, for it is
+unlikely that some tribes permitted the capture of their women without
+retaliation. Besides, even among primitive people men are careful in
+risking their lives. Capture of women is, therefore, nowhere the rule,
+but is everywhere the exception. Had it been the rule anywhere, the
+continuous fighting would have led to the extermination of the tribes in
+question. Frazer is right when he says: "If women are scarce in a group,
+many men will prefer to remain single rather than expose themselves to
+the danger of death by trying to capture women from their neighbours."
+This is what really happened among many tribes of the Australian natives
+who lived on a friendly footing with each other. It even happens that
+the old men who claim the women expressly forbid the young men to steal
+women from other tribes, because that will lead to bloodshed. Further,
+scarcity of women is most likely overcome, as previously mentioned, by
+several men's sharing one wife, which arrangement, unlike the capture of
+women, avoids arousing the hostility of neighbours. Among peaceable
+tribes, therefore, a numerical preponderance of men results not in
+exogamy, but in polyandry. But admitting that a warlike tribe has not
+sufficient women and therefore captures them from their neighbours, it
+is still unexplainable why the men should altogether avoid sexual
+relationship with their own women, few as they are, and have no desire
+for them whatsoever. This will certainly not be the result; on the
+contrary, the few women obtainable without force will be all the more in
+demand.
+
+Frazer thinks that the origin of exogamy has been rightly explained by
+the American ethnologist L. H. Morgan, who for many years lived among
+the exogamic Indians as one of them, and thus came into direct contact
+with exogamy. Morgan assumed that sexual promiscuity was general at a
+very early period in the history of mankind, and that exogamy was
+instituted for the deliberate purpose of preventing cohabitation between
+blood relations, particularly between brothers and sisters, as was
+previously customary. This struck promiscuity at the root; it removed
+its worst peculiarity, and resulted at the same time in a powerful
+movement towards the establishment of sexual monogamy.
+
+Frazer, in supporting Morgan's theory, relies exclusively on the
+Australian natives, who, according to him, though extremely primitive
+savages, "carry out the principle of exogamy with a practical
+astuteness, logical thoroughness, and precision such as no other race
+shows in its marriage system."
+
+Frazer finds that the effects of the Australian marriage class system
+are in complete harmony with the deeply rooted convictions and feelings
+of the natives as regards sexual intercourse, and concludes that the
+successive tribal subdivisions have been brought about deliberately in
+order to avoid marriage of blood relations. According to him, it is not
+going too far to assert that "no other human institution bears the stamp
+of deliberate purpose more clearly than the exogamous classes of the
+Australians. To assume that they serve only accidentally the purpose
+that they actually fulfil, and which is approved by them unreservedly,
+would be to test our credulity nearly as much as if we were told that
+the complicated mechanism of a watch has originated without human
+design."
+
+Nearly all Australian tribes have the system of division into marriage
+classes. Every tribe consists of two main groups (called in
+ethnographical literature phratries or moieties), and each of these
+groups is again divided into two, four, or eight classes. Sometimes the
+phratries and classes have special names, but not always. In the latter
+case it may be assumed that the names have been lost, while the division
+of the tribes into marriage groups remains. These groups are strictly
+exogamous. In no case are the members of the main group of the tribe
+(phratry) or of the same class allowed to marry each other. Only members
+of two given classes may marry, and their children are again assigned to
+given classes. Among some of the tribes there exists paternal descent,
+among others maternal descent. Which of the two modes of descent
+prevails in Australia can hardly be determined. Among some tribes
+property is inherited in the female line. Other rights of the female sex
+connected with mother descent are unknown. An example of the Australian
+marriage classes is given here, namely, that of the tribe Warrai, who
+live on the railway line running from Port Darwin to the south. Among
+this tribe indirect paternal descent is the custom; _i.e._, the children
+belong to the main group (phratry) of the father, but to other marriage
+classes.
+
+
+      Phratry I.   |   Phratry II.
+     --------------+----------------
+      Adshumbitch  |   Apungerti
+     *Aldshambitch |  *Alpungerti
+     --------------+----------------
+      Apularan     |   Auinmitch
+     *Alpularan    |  *Alinmitch
+
+
+The female marriage classes are marked with an asterisk.
+
+Each member of a certain male marriage class may only marry a member of
+a marriage class of the other phratry, placed opposite in the table.
+Thus, for instance, an Adshumbitch man marries an Alpungerti woman, an
+Apungerti man an Aldshambitch woman, etc. The children always belong to
+the phratry of the men, but to another marriage group of theirs. Thus,
+for instance, the boys born from the union of an Adshumbitch man with an
+Apungerti woman belong to the Apularan class, and the girls born of this
+marriage belong to the Alpularan class. Further complications arise in
+consequence of the totem system, which exists among most of the
+Australian tribes. As the local groups of a tribe are numerically weak
+and consist of members of all marriage classes, the choice of mates is
+restricted to quite a small number of persons, being further limited to
+a great extent by the marriage of girls in childhood. But even when
+adults marry, they can rarely decide according to their own will, but
+are dependent on the circumstances of relationship. On the northern
+coast of Australia the marriage class system does not exist, but exogamy
+exists there, the members of certain local groups not being allowed to
+marry each other. The now extinct tribes in the south-east of the
+continent also had no marriage class system.
+
+But it still remains a mystery how it was found out that marriages of
+blood relations were harmful. One objection is, that some of the
+Australians are ignorant of the process of generation; they do not even
+know that pregnancy is the result of cohabitation. It is also doubtful
+whether the Australian natives can in any case be considered as typical
+representatives of primitive man. If this were so, all mankind would
+still be in a very low state of civilisation, for the Australians appear
+incapable of progressive development. And further, if exogamous classes
+were purposely instituted in order to prevent cohabitation between blood
+relations, how is it that other people also are excluded from sexual
+intercourse who are not blood relations? Frazer's comparison with a
+watch is also badly chosen. We must take into consideration the
+intellectual stage of development of mankind at the time when exogamy
+arose, and when the watch was invented. Even if we do not admit that
+exogamy was instituted with a conscious purpose, this does not by any
+means, as Frazer says, do away altogether with will and purpose from the
+history of human institutions. There is no need to doubt that the
+Australian system of exogamy became more and more complicated through
+the deliberate action of man.
+
+Frazer himself assumes that the Australians had an aversion to
+cohabitation between brothers and sisters even before it was definitely
+fixed by binding rules. Sexual aversion between parents and children,
+according to him, is universal among them, whether there be in vogue the
+two-, four- or eight-classes system, _i.e._, whether incest between
+parents and children is expressly forbidden or not. "In democratic
+societies like those of the Australian natives, the law sanctions only
+thoughts that have already been long the mental possession of the
+majority of people." Hence the agreement of the marriage class system
+with the feelings of the people becomes explainable.
+
+Since the aversion to sexual intercourse within certain classes was
+already in existence before the formation of marriage classes, the
+classificatory system being merely the formal expression of it, we have
+to find some explanation for it. For the appearance of this aversion
+marks the real beginning of exogamy, which cannot be explained by the
+complicated system of the Australians. It is possible that the sexual
+aversion towards blood relations is already a characteristic trait of
+the human race before its truly human development, and that it may have
+to be looked upon as an instinct. This is the opinion of F. Hellwald,
+which has also been upheld of late by A. E. Crawley. It is assumed that
+among brothers and sisters, as among boys and girls who have lived
+together from childhood, the pairing instinct generally remains in
+abeyance, because the conditions are wanting that are likely to awaken
+this instinct. Courting the favour of a person of the other sex is the
+process that gradually brings about the sexual excitement necessary for
+union. The possibility of sexual excitation between people who have
+lived together from childhood is decidedly lessened through habituation,
+if not completely inhibited. In this respect brothers and sisters reach
+already at puberty that state towards each other to which people married
+for a long time approach gradually, through the constant living
+together and the exhaustion of youthful passion. If brother and sister
+sometimes show passion for each other, it is generally the result of the
+same circumstances that are necessary to arouse it under normal
+conditions, _e.g._, a long separation. As the absence of sexual
+attraction between brother and sister who have grown up together is a
+natural thing, it is strange that cohabitation between them should have
+to be specially prohibited and enforced by strict measures among
+primitive peoples. The explanation, according to Crawley, is simple. "In
+many departments of primitive life we find a naïve desire to, as it
+were, assist Nature, to affirm what is normal and later to confirm it by
+the categorical imperative of custom and law. This tendency still
+flourishes in our civilised communities, and, as the worship of the
+normal, is often a deadly foe to the abnormal and eccentric, and too
+often paralyses originality. Laws thus made, and with this object, have
+some justification, and their existence may be due, in some small
+measure, to the fact that abnormality increases _pari passu_ with
+culture. But it is a grave error to ascribe a prevalence of incest to
+the period preceding the law against it." All the facts tend to show
+that the most primitive people procured their wives by friendly
+arrangements. From this standpoint it would be most practical if each
+tribe were divided into two groups, the men of each group marrying wives
+from the other group. This state of affairs is actually to be found
+among many uncivilised peoples that are divided into two exogamous
+groups or phratries. It has still to be discovered how this bipartition
+arose. It is unthinkable that a division into two groups was
+intentionally brought about by the members of the groups for the purpose
+of preventing marriages between blood relations of a certain grade. No
+tribe has ever been divided in such a manner; the division must
+therefore be explainable in another way. The phratries are large
+families (in the broad sense of the word); they descend from families
+(in the narrower sense of the word), reciprocally supplying each other
+with wives. The names of the phratries are generally unintelligible, in
+contradistinction to the names of the totem groups, and therefore most
+probably older. The totem groups, of which a phratry consists, are to be
+considered as younger branches of the original double family, which have
+arisen through wives being taken from other groups whose children again
+received the name of their mothers. If it should be asked why the
+members of two phratries should constantly intermarry, it should be
+pointed out that among communities in the lowest stage of civilisation
+women are not easily procurable, and the force of external circumstances
+would favour the unions just mentioned (Crawley, pp. 54 _et seq._).
+
+A biological explanation of the origin of exogamy is given by Herbert
+Risley. Without basing it on the assumption that primitive people have a
+knowledge of the harmfulness of incest, he gives the following
+exposition: "Exogamy can be brought under the law of natural selection
+without extending it too far. We know that among individuals or groups
+of individuals there exists a tendency to vary in their instincts, and
+that useful variations (such as are suitable to the conditions of life)
+tend to be preserved and transmitted by inheritance. Let us assume now
+that in a primitive community the men varied in the direction towards
+choosing wives from another community, and that this infusion of fresh
+blood was advantageous. The original instinct would then be strengthened
+by inheritance, and sexual selection would be added in the course of
+time. For an exogamous group would have a greater choice of women than
+an endogamous one, ... and in the competition for women the best would
+fall to the strongest and most warlike men. In this way the strengthened
+exogamous groups would in time exterminate the endogamous neighbours, or
+at least take away their best marriageable maidens. Exogamy would spread
+partly through imitation, partly through the extermination of endogamous
+groups. The fact that we cannot explain how it came about that the
+people varied in the aforesaid direction is not fatal to this
+hypothesis. We do not doubt natural selection in the case of animals
+because we cannot give the exact cause of a favourable variation."
+
+E. Westermarck holds a similar theory about the cessation of incest. He
+thinks that "among the ancestors of man, as among other animals, there
+was, no doubt, a time when blood relationship was no bar to sexual
+intercourse. But variations here, as elsewhere, would naturally present
+themselves; and those of our ancestors who avoided in-and-in breeding
+would survive, while the others would gradually decay and ultimately
+perish. Thus an instinct would be developed which would be powerful
+enough, as a rule, to prevent injurious unions. Of course it would
+display itself simply as an aversion on the part of individuals to union
+with others with whom they lived; but these, as a matter of fact, would
+be blood relations, so that the result would be the survival of the
+fittest. Whether man inherited the feeling from the predecessors from
+whom he sprang, or whether it was developed after the evolution of
+distinctly human qualities, we do not know. It must necessarily have
+arisen at a stage when family ties became comparatively strong, and
+children remained with their parents until the age of puberty or even
+longer."
+
+It may be surmised that the impulse towards the appearance of the
+exogamous tendency arose through economic progress, which led to an
+increase of the means of existence, and this in its turn produced a more
+friendly relationship between neighbouring groups that previously had
+quarrelled about food. The men thus came into contact with strange
+women, and this awakened a heightened sexual feeling, in other words the
+instinct which is said to have led to the avoidance of incest. Thus
+among the peoples on a very low economic level (_e.g._, the Pigmies) no
+laws for the prevention of incest are to be found, a fact that may be
+held to confirm this idea. Primitive people could in any case not
+understand the harmfulness of incest, while it is certain that strange
+members of the opposite sex could exert a stronger attraction, and thus
+render the sexual impulse permanent, which previously was periodical, as
+among the animals.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+BIRTH AND FETICIDE
+
+
+The slow increase in the population of primitive peoples, which is also
+to be noticed wherever the conditions of life have not been influenced
+by European settlers and missionaries, is chiefly due to the want of
+proper midwifery, and no less to the frequent practice of abortion. The
+opinion is often met with, particularly in older writings, that among
+primitive people childbirth is extremely easy. But more extended
+knowledge has shown how dangerous childbirth is for the primitive mother
+also. Though childbirth is a natural physiological process, it does not
+always pass off quite without danger, no less under natural conditions
+than among highly civilised peoples. Primitive people know full well
+that the hour of childbirth is the hardest time in a woman's life, but
+not all have progressed far enough in the knowledge of physiology to be
+able to render efficient assistance to the woman in labour. Some people
+leave her, incredible as it may seem to us, without any assistance,
+either through indifference to life or through a superstitious fear of
+the mystery of life. Such cases are, however, very rare exceptions.
+Sometimes means are used for furthering the birth that are not only
+inefficacious, but actually injurious. Often, however, delivery is
+actually furthered by the assistance given. Internal manipulation is
+seldom resorted to, and operations are still more rare. R. W. Felkin's
+report about the operation of Cæsarian section among the negroes in
+Uganda seems to be unique. Ploss and Bartels have compiled a great deal
+of information about childbirth among primitive people. We add here some
+examples from the later literature.
+
+Feticide occurs most likely among all primitive peoples to a larger or
+lesser degree, and injures them accordingly. The reasons are the same as
+with us: inability to support a large number of children or aversion to
+the worries of child-rearing. Unmarried girls procure abortion usually
+because the child might be a hindrance to a future marriage,
+particularly when the father of the expected child jilts the mother.
+Still pre-marital births are not always considered a disgrace among
+primitive people. The abortives resorted to are generally inefficacious,
+though some native peoples have discovered really effective remedies.
+Külz (p. 18) says quite rightly, "It is to be assumed that woman
+everywhere, even in a low state of civilisation, has her attention
+directed to the occurrence of involuntary premature birth by often
+recurring effective causes. Such external causes are not very remote
+from the mechanically and medically produced abortions. We only need to
+think of the fact that among all primitive peoples the chief work in the
+fields falls to the women, and that it is just heavy labour that has the
+tendency to interrupt pregnancy. It required only some little thought
+to discover this frequently observed coincidence and to learn from the
+involuntary interruption of pregnancy how to produce it voluntarily....
+In the same way the production of abortions by poisons can easily be
+derived from a rational application of chance remedies producing
+corresponding involuntary effects.... Just as primitive man discovered
+many medicinal plants by repeatedly partaking of them, so he also found
+out the specific use of some of these for feticide. This could happen
+the more readily as among abortive remedies in use there were many that
+in a way served him as food and condiment, such as nutmeg, or the papaia
+kernels, or others that he used at the same time for poisoning fish, or
+others, again, like the aperient _Cajanus indicus_, which in moderate
+doses acts medicinally, in large doses, however, as an abortive."
+
+The use of poisons and mechanical feticide not only brings about
+limitation of offspring, but often results in the death of the mother.
+Where they are very prevalent they contribute greatly to the scarcity of
+women, with all its attendant biological disadvantages. The contact of
+primitive people with Europeans generally increases the frequency of
+abortions. This is due partly to the desire for hiding the results of
+sexual intercourse with strangers, partly to the incitement to loose
+living which the acquaintance with European culture sometimes brings
+about.
+
+How defective the state of midwifery is among primitive people is shown
+by many accounts in newer works of ethnology. Thus the missionary Endle
+writes (p. 41): "The native tribes of Assam and Burma have no special
+midwives. Every old woman may perform the duties of a midwife, and she
+does it without payment. There is no information about the treatment of
+the woman during parturition. The navel cord is generally cut off with a
+bamboo knife. The Katshári do not perform this with one cut, but make
+five cuts in the case of a boy and seven for a girl. The mother is
+considered unclean for several weeks after her confinement. This is also
+the case among many races of Southern and Eastern Asia, and in other
+parts of the world. Isolation even before the confinement sometimes
+occurs, and is due to the belief that women in this state are unclean."
+
+Among the savage tribes of Formosa the birth of a child passes off so
+lightly that the lying-in woman is able to go on with her work on the
+following day. She only avoids heavy labour in the field for a month.
+After the birth certain superstitious ceremonies, according to old
+customs, are performed, such as driving away the devil, etc. Among many
+tribes twins are held to be a misfortune, and the second child is
+therefore killed. This also occurs frequently in other places (W.
+Müller, p. 230).
+
+Among the Igorots of Bontoc (Philippines) the woman works in the field
+almost to the hour of her confinement. There are no festivities or
+ceremonies connected with the birth. The father of the child, if he is
+the husband of the woman, is present, as is also the woman's mother, but
+no one else. The parturient woman bends her body strongly forward,
+holding firmly on to the beam of the house, or she takes up an
+animal-like position, so that hands and feet are on the ground.
+Medicines and baths are not resorted to for hastening the labour pains,
+but the people present massage the abdomen of the labouring woman. About
+ten days after the birth her body is washed with warm water. There is no
+special diet, but the mother refrains from field work for two or three
+months. If twins are born, it is believed to be due to an evil spirit
+who has had connection with the woman whilst she was asleep. No blame is
+attached to the mother, but the quieter of the children (and when both
+children are quiet, the longer one) is buried alive near the house
+immediately after birth. Abortion is practised by married women as well
+as by single girls, if for some reason the child is not wanted. The
+mother warns her unmarried daughter against abortion, telling her that a
+girl who produces abortion will not get a faithful husband, but will
+become the common partner of several men. The foetus is driven off in
+the second month of pregnancy by hot baths and massage. Abortion is not
+considered a disgrace (Jenks).
+
+Among the Kayan of Borneo there are everywhere older women who serve as
+midwives. One of them is called in good time to the pregnant woman. She
+examines her abdomen from time to time, and pretends to be able to give
+the child the right position. She hangs some magical remedies about the
+living room, and applies various remedies externally. The pregnant woman
+follows her usual occupation until the labour pains commence. Then the
+midwife and other old relatives or friends assist her. The husband may
+also remain in the room, but he is prevented by a screen from seeing the
+parturient woman, who gets hold tightly of a cloth hung over or in front
+of her. The pains are generally of short duration, rarely lasting more
+than two or three hours. In order to prevent the rising of the child,
+the women bind a cloth tightly round the abdomen of the parturient
+woman, and two of them press firmly on the womb on either side. After
+the delivery of the child the navel cord is cut with a bamboo knife. If
+the after-birth does not follow soon, the women become anxious; two of
+them lift up the patient, and if that has no result, the navel cord is
+fastened to an axe in order to prevent it from re-entering the body, and
+presumably also to hasten the delivery of the after-birth. Internal
+manipulations are not resorted to. The after-birth is buried. If the
+child is born with a caul, the caul is dried, pounded into powder, and
+used in later years as medicine for the child. If the labour pains are
+exceptionally severe or long-lasting, or if an accident happens, the
+news travels rapidly. Everybody is overcome by fear, as the death of a
+parturient woman is particularly dreaded. The men and the boys take
+flight. If death actually ensues, most of the men remain in hiding for
+some time, and the corpse is quickly buried by old men and women who are
+least afraid of death.
+
+The pregnant women of the Punan of Borneo continue with their usual work
+until the arrival of labour pains, and they resume it immediately after
+the confinement. To assist delivery the body is tightly bound above the
+womb. Nothing further is known about special help (Hose and McDougall,
+II., pp. 154, 185).
+
+The Papua women are said to give birth easily, as a rule, but difficult
+deliveries and fatal cases do occur exceptionally. The custom exists in
+various places for the mother to throw the after-birth into the river or
+the sea after confinement (Williamson, p. 178; Seligmann, p. 85). Of the
+Mafulu Williamson says that when the after-birth is thrown into the
+river the mother gives the new-born child some water to drink. If the
+child partakes of it, it is considered a good omen; otherwise the child
+is believed not to be viable and is drowned. Williamson thinks that the
+purpose of this custom is to enable the mother to choose whether she
+wishes to keep the child alive or not. It also may happen that a
+childless woman accompanies the mother to the river and there adopts the
+child. Wilful abortion also occurs very often, not only in single girls,
+but also in married women, who thus keep their families small.
+
+Among the Barriai in New Pomerania the woman is confined whilst sitting
+on a log of wood, being massaged from above downwards by an older woman.
+The husband is not allowed to be present. The birth generally passes off
+quite easily. The navel cord is cut off with an obsidian knife. The
+parents may not eat pork and certain kinds of fish until the child has
+begun to walk. Disregard of this prohibition is believed to bring about
+the death of the child. The parents abstain also during this time from
+sexual intercourse. Abortives do not seem to be known, though
+miscarriages sometimes occur through the rough treatment of pregnant
+women by men (Friederici, p. 89). In Polynesia abortion is generally
+produced by women professionally. This is brought about by the use of
+certain foods or drinks, by the application of mechanical means, etc.
+How widespread feticide is in Melanesia can be seen from a statement of
+Parkinson, according to whom in New Mecklenburg quite young girls make
+no secret of having produced abortion three or four times. Among the
+Jabim (Finschhafen) the mothers present their daughters with abortives
+when they get married (Buschan, I., p. 62).
+
+On the eastern islands of the Torres Straits (Australia) the women chew
+as a prevention of pregnancy the leaves of Callicarpa, or of a Eugenia
+species called _sobe_, also the leaves of a large shrub called _bok_;
+but these remedies are inefficacious. Medicines and mechanical methods
+are used for abortion. Among the former are the leaves of the
+convolvulus, of Clerodendron, _Pouzolzia microphylla_, _Macaranga
+tanarius_, _Terminala catappa_, Eugenia, _Hibiscus tiliaceus_, and
+Callicarpa. If these do not help, the abdomen is beaten with large
+stones, with a rope or twigs or a wand, or a heavy load is put on it.
+Sometimes the woman leans with her back against a tree, and two men
+grasp a wand and press it against her abdomen, so as to bring about the
+delivery of the foetus. This often results in the death of the mother.
+
+On the Easter Island, in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, there were several
+men with a knowledge of midwifery, but recently only one of them has
+survived. Nowadays older women act as midwives. Walter Knoche writes
+(1912, pp. 659 _et seq._): "The birth takes place either in the open or
+in the house, the woman standing with legs spread out, or recently in a
+sitting position. The accoucheur stands behind the parturient woman,
+embracing her abdomen. The thumbs are spread out, and touch each other
+in a horizontal position somewhat above the navel, while the remainder
+of the hand is turned diagonally downwards. In this way massage is
+applied by a slow, rhythmical, strong and kneading movement vertically
+from above downwards. When the birth is sufficiently advanced, the child
+is drawn out; the assistant bites off the navel cord (among some
+Brazilian Indian tribes the husband does this, but on the Easter Island
+he takes no part in the delivery); then a knot is made a few centimetres
+from the navel. The after-birth is not specially dealt with; it is
+buried. The navel cord, however, is placed in a calabash, which is
+buried or put under a rock. After the event the lying-in woman lies down
+upon a mat in the house, and warm, flat, fairly heavy stones are applied
+to the abdomen. Perhaps this is the reason why even women who have had
+difficult confinements still preserve a good figure. The infant remains
+at the mother's breast for about a year." Knoche also heard that the
+women sometimes pass a piece of an alga into the vulva right up to the
+womb before intercourse with a stranger, believing this method to be a
+very safe one. It could, unfortunately, not be ascertained whether this
+precaution was formerly, as seems likely, resorted to generally in order
+to limit the number of children, or whether its use was only intended to
+keep the tribe untainted by foreign blood. The latter assumption is
+contradicted by the fact that "the Easter Island women have children
+from strangers living for some time on the Easter Island, and that
+nowadays the use of contraceptives in the case of strangers who come and
+go quickly may simply be due to the circumstance that at the birth of a
+child there would be no man to support it. It is most probable that the
+use of preventives had its origin in Malthusian principles. The little
+island, whose population has been variously estimated by travellers of
+the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century at a few
+thousand, must herewith have reached its maximum number of inhabitants,
+which could of necessity not be exceeded. Deaths and births had
+therefore to balance. This employment of contraceptives in Polynesia is
+unique, and it may be truly reckoned as a sign of a higher civilisation,
+together with other facts, such as the existence of a script, of stone
+houses and of large stone idols, the Moai, which have made this lonely
+little island so famous. On the other Oceanic Islands, as, for instance,
+on the westward-situated Tahiti, infanticide, committed by the mother as
+many as ten times in succession, served to limit the number of children,
+either on account of economy or for reasons of convenience.
+Contraceptives are otherwise unknown in Oceania."
+
+Of the Jao in East Africa Karl Weule relates (p. 61): "During the
+delivery the parturient woman lies upon her back on a mat on the floor
+of the hut. The older children and the husband are not allowed to be
+present, but a number of older women are there, amongst whom there is
+always a near relative of the husband, who takes special note of any
+evidence of extra-marital intercourse given by the parturient woman. It
+is the chief business of the midwives to submit the woman to a very
+strict _questionnaire_: 'How many men have you had, three, or four, or
+even more? Your child will not come until you have mentioned the right
+father. Yes, you will die, if you do not tell us how many men you have
+had.' Such speeches are hurled at the woman from all sides. No
+mechanical help is given her. She rolls about in pain, under great
+bodily and mental torture, and shrieks and cries until all is over. The
+navel cord is cut off by an old woman. Ancient instruments, such as are
+used by the East African Bantu tribes, are unknown among the Jao. The
+cutting of the navel cord seems to be performed clumsily, for umbilical
+rupture, which has become an ideal of beauty in many places in Eastern
+Africa, is here frequent. The after-birth and the navel cord are buried,
+if possible without a witness. They are considered effective magical
+remedies. The new-born child is washed and then wrapped in a cloth or a
+piece of bark fabric. A real lying-in is not kept up; the mother gets up
+again the same or the following day. Sex intercourse can only be resumed
+again with the permission of the village elder. It is only given when
+the child can sit up, or when it is six or seven months old. Children
+are welcome; twins are no less joyfully received. But infanticide is
+said to occur. If, however, children are not wanted, married women as
+well as girls resort to abortion. Plant juices are generally used for
+this purpose, though sometimes mechanical means are resorted to.
+Abortion is in no way considered reprehensible. In order to prevent
+conception, the woman puts herself into communication with a _fundi_,
+who understands something of making knots. The _fundi_ goes into the
+wood, seeks out two different barks, and twists them together into a
+cord. Into the cord he rubs the yolk of an egg, for to the Jao the curse
+of infertility abides in the egg. He knots into the cord three knots,
+saying at the same time, 'You tree are called thus and thus, and you
+thus; but you egg, you become a living animal. But now I do not want
+anything living.' He then twists the final knot. This cord is worn by
+the woman round her body. Boots are also placed under her head at night
+to prevent conception. If the woman wishes to become pregnant again, she
+needs only to untie the knots in the cord, to put it into water, and
+then drink the water. Afterwards the cord is thrown away."
+
+Among the Makua, on the Makonda plateau in East Africa, at the first
+sign of labour pains the woman lies down upon her back on a mat in the
+house. A cloth is put under her back by the helping women, which is
+drawn tightly and pulled up when the pains become stronger. After the
+birth the navel cord is cut, not with a knife, but with a splinter from
+a millet stalk. Here, as in other phases in the life of man, an ancient
+implement has survived for sacred purposes long after the period of its
+common use. The navel cord is not tied, but dries off. The removed part
+is buried. The lying-in woman remains at home three or four days.
+
+Among the Masai an old woman is always called in as midwife. If the
+birth goes on normally, no superstitious or useless operations are
+undertaken (Merker, pp. 189 _et seq._). Should an increase of labour
+pains appear necessary, the parturient woman is led round by the women
+for a few steps, and if this does not produce the desired result light
+massage is applied. Only when these remedies prove to be inefficacious
+an extreme step is taken: the labouring woman is slowly lifted up by her
+feet by several women until her body hangs perpendicularly and her head
+touches the ground, whereupon the midwife massages the body in the
+direction of the navel. Medicaments are seldom used for hastening the
+delivery. Internal manual or operative manipulations do not seem to be
+practised anywhere. In the case of a narrow pelvis preventing birth, no
+help is available; mother and child perish. The confinement takes place
+on all fours or in a sitting position; in the latter case the legs and
+the back are pressed against the posts of the hut. For the production of
+abortion a decoction of dried goat dung or of _cordia quarensis_ or some
+other remedy is used.
+
+Of the Hottentots it has sometimes been reported that the women have
+easy births. According to Schulze's inquiries (p. 218), this is not
+always the case. The birth takes place in the side position. During very
+difficult births the women attempt to widen the vulva of the parturient
+woman. If that does not help, the perineum is deliberately torn up to
+the anus. No attempt is made to cure the perineal tear, for the belief
+exists that it would hinder the passage of the next child. All
+manipulations are carried out beneath the skin rug under which the woman
+lies. The navel cord is cut without delay; no one troubles about the
+delivery of the after-birth. The woman resumes her occupation generally
+on the seventh or eighth day. Feticide is not unusual among the
+Hottentots. A hot decoction of badger urine, drunk, if necessary, for
+several days in succession, is considered an effective abortive remedy.
+The procedure itself is characteristically called "drinking and falling"
+(Schulze, p. 320).
+
+Among the Uti-Krag Indians of the Rio Doce (Espirito Santo, Brazil) the
+woman goes through the labour alone. She disappears in the bush, and
+herself bites off the navel cord; after the delivery she goes to the
+nearest stream to wash herself and the child, and rejoins her tribe
+immediately (Walter Knoche, 1913, p. 397).
+
+Among the Indians of the Aiary, when a woman is taken with labour pains
+all the men leave their house, which is common to several families. The
+woman lies in her hammock in her part of the house, which is securely
+closed by a lattice railing. All the women remain with her and help at
+the birth. The navel cord and after-birth are buried immediately on the
+spot. After the birth the mother and the child remain strictly secluded
+for five days. The husband remains in the house during the lying-in
+period, but there is no real _couvade_ (the male lying-in custom).
+
+The women of the Kobéua Indians give birth in the common family house,
+or in an outlying hut, or even in the wood, with the assistance of all
+married women, who first paint their faces red for the festive occasion.
+The navel cord is cut off by the husband's mother with a blade of
+scleria grass, and is immediately buried, together with the
+after-birth. Of twins the second born is killed, or the female if they
+are of different sexes. After the birth, the witch doctor performs
+exorcism. The parents keep up a five days' lying-in, and eight days
+after the birth a drinking feast is held (Koch-Grünberg, I., p. 182;
+II., p. 146).
+
+Among the Bakairi of Brazil, according to Karl von den Steinen (p. 334),
+abortion is said to occur frequently. The women are afraid of the
+confinement. They prepare for it by drinking tea, and mechanical
+measures are also resorted to. The women are delivered on the floor in a
+kneeling position, holding firmly to a post. The hammocks must not be
+soiled. Women who have had experience declared with emphasis, and showed
+by pantomime, that the pains were great. But they soon get up and go to
+work, the husband going through the famous _couvade_ (the man's
+lying-in), keeping strict diet, not touching his weapons and passing the
+greatest part of his time in his hammock. He only leaves the house to
+satisfy his physical needs, and lives completely on a thin _pogu_,
+manioc cake crumbled into water. There exists the belief that anything
+else might injure the child, as if the child itself ate meat, fish or
+fruit. The _couvade_ only ends when the remainder of the navel cord
+falls off.
+
+Among the Bororo, according to the same author (p. 503), the woman is
+delivered in the wood. The father cuts the navel cord with a bamboo
+splinter, and ties it with a thread. For two days the parents do not
+eat anything, and on the third day they may only partake of some warm
+water. If the man were to eat he and the child would become ill. The
+after-birth is buried in the wood. The woman is not allowed to bathe
+until the reappearance of menstruation; but then, as generally after
+menstruation, she does it frequently. Abortion by the help of internal
+means is said to be frequent, especially among the Ranchao women. If the
+mother wishes to stop suckling, they squeeze the breasts out, and "dry
+the milk over the fire, whereupon it keeps away." Medicine for sick
+children, which the chemist had prepared, was swallowed by the parents,
+as among the Bakairi.
+
+Among the Paressi the woman is confined in a kneeling position, being
+held by her mother under her breast. The _couvade_ is also customary
+among them.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+IGNORANCE OF THE PROCESS OF GENERATION
+
+
+The mentality of the different branches of mankind varies a great deal.
+A good example of this is the fact that there are peoples who do not
+know the connection between cohabitation and conception. There are other
+tribes, again, who, as we have reason to assume, did not possess this
+knowledge previously. In fact, Ferdinand von Reitzenstein thinks that
+there was a time when the connection between cohabitation and pregnancy
+was unknown to all mankind, and he adduces examples which show that
+traces of such a state are to be found in the legends and customs of
+many peoples. And, says von Reitzenstein, we need hardly be surprised at
+this ignorance of the generative process when we consider that "it is
+only since the days of Swammerdam, who died in 1685, that we know that
+both egg and spermatozoon have to come together for fertilisation, and
+only since Du Barry (1850) that we know that the spermatozoon must
+penetrate the egg." The belief in supernatural conception has been
+preserved, not only in the Christian Churches, but also in the myths of
+the gods in most religions. Originally man could not conclude from the
+mere appearance of a pregnant woman that the cohabitation which had
+occurred months ago was the cause of her condition. Primitive people do
+not bring into causal connection phenomena separated by wide intervals.
+
+Von Reitzenstein writes that primitive people, who generally marry their
+girls before the advent of puberty, must have been turned aside from
+seeing the connection between cohabitation and pregnancy because these
+girls had no children at first in spite of having sexual intercourse.
+But to this it may be objected that even the lowest races must have
+noticed that pregnancy only occurs after the advent of the first
+menstruation. The appearance and abeyance of menstruation must have
+formed a step towards the understanding of the generative process. It is
+otherwise with von Reitzenstein's objection that by far the largest
+number of cohabitations do not lead to pregnancy. Even among
+comparatively enlightened races this observation led to the assumption
+that some additional supernatural process is necessary for
+fertilisation. Among the Australians, the least developed race of man,
+the necessity of cohabitation for pregnancy is totally unknown. Baldwin
+Spencer and Frank J. Gillen have shown (1899, pp. 123 _et seq._; 1904,
+pp. 145, 606) that among the natives of Northern and Central Australia
+there exists the general belief that the children penetrate into the
+woman as minute spirits. These spirits are said to come from persons
+that have lived once before and are reborn in this manner. The belief in
+rebirth, together with the ignorance of the generative process, is very
+widespread in Australia, _e.g._, among many tribes in Queensland, in
+Southern Australia, in the Northern Territory and in Western Australia.
+It is now too late to get reliable information in this matter from those
+parts of Australia where the natives are in regular contact with whites.
+Spencer takes it as certain that the belief in asexual propagation was
+once general in Australia.
+
+Among all those tribes by whom this belief has been preserved up to the
+present the traditions concerning the tribal ancestors are quite
+definite. Among the Arunta, for instance, who live in the district of
+the transcontinental telegraph line between Charlotte Waters and the
+McDonnel mountains, and among whom ignorance of the process of
+generation was first discovered, there exists the tradition that in
+bygone times, called _altcheringa_, the male and female ancestors of the
+tribe carried spirit children about with them, which they put down in
+certain places. These spirit children, like the spirits of the tribal
+ancestors, themselves enter into the women and are borne by them. The
+Arunta believe that at the death of a person his spirit returns to a
+special tree or rock, out of which it came, and which is called
+_nandcha_. It remains there until it thinks fit once more to enter into
+a woman, and thus go amongst the living. All these spirits are called
+_iruntarinia_. But before the first rebirth of an _iruntarinia_ there
+arose another spirit from the _nandcha_, which is the double of the
+_iruntarinia_, and is called _arumburinga._ This _arumburinga_ never
+becomes embodied, but remains always a spirit, which accompanies its
+human representative whenever inclined, and, as a rule, remains
+invisible. Only specially gifted people, particularly witch doctors, can
+see _arumburinga;_ they can even speak with them. Among other Australian
+tribes which believe in rebirth, no belief in spirits like the
+_arumburinga_ has been traced (compare B. Ankermann, "Totenkult und
+Seelenglauben bei Afrikanischen Völkern," _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie,_
+Jahrgang 50, pp. 89 _et seq._).
+
+There is, however, general agreement in the belief that the ancestral
+parents brought into the world the spirit children, who are continually
+reborn. Among many tribes, as the Dieri and the Warramunga, it is
+believed that the sex changes at every rebirth, so that the ancestral
+spirit once takes the form of a male and the next time that of a female.
+The conditions are such among the Australians that their ignorance of
+the connection between sexual intercourse and propagation is not at all
+surprising. Spencer points out that among the Australians there are no
+"virgins," for as soon as a girl is sexually ripe she is given to a
+particular man, with whom she has sexual intercourse right through life.
+In this respect there is no difference among the native women; yet the
+people see that some women have children and others none, and also that
+the women with children have them at unequal intervals that have no
+connection with sexual intercourse. Besides, the women know that they
+are pregnant only when they feel the quickening, and that is often at a
+time when they have had nothing to do with a man. Therefore they attempt
+to explain the origin of children in some other manner, which is in
+accordance with the very primitive mode of thought of these
+unprogressive people. In this connection it may be mentioned that the
+Australian mothers attribute the birth of half-castes to their having
+eaten too much of the white man's flour. Therefore old Australians
+accept without question as their own the half-caste children of their
+wives, and treat them as such. Though the natives of Northern Queensland
+know that the animals propagate sexually, they dispute this as regards
+human beings, because man, in contradistinction to the animals, has a
+living spirit, a soul, which could not be begotten by a material
+process. A. Lang thinks that with regard to the genesis of mankind the
+psychology of these primitive people has obscured their knowledge of
+physiology. According to him, the idea that there is no connection
+between cohabitation and generation cannot be considered as primary in
+man.
+
+A proof of this ignorance of the fertilisation process among the
+Australians is the splitting of the penis practised by them. Otherwise
+these tribes, which have a scarcity of women and children, and which
+desire progeny, would not perform an operation by which the semen fails
+to fulfil its function in the majority of cases of cohabitation. It is
+becoming more and more certain that this splitting of the penis serves
+exclusively the purpose of lust, and is least of all intended as a
+deliberate birth preventative (von Reitzenstein).
+
+Evidences of the ignorance of generation are also to be found elsewhere
+in cases where the above-mentioned objection of Lang does not apply. In
+Melanesia the connection between cohabitation and conception seems to
+have been unknown until lately. R. Thurnwald says that among the tribes
+on the Bismarck and Solomon Islands visited by him this connection is
+well known nowadays, but the causal relationship is not so clearly
+conceived as by our psychologically trained physicians. As a natural
+phenomenon conception sometimes occurs and sometimes not. Intentional
+and real forgetting, inexact calculation of time, and the strangeness of
+men towards women, who are held as inferiors, all make it appear
+logically probable that conception can take place without cohabitation.
+To this must be added the weirdness of the whole process, which is
+therefore given a mysterious interpretation, and also that mode of
+thought which connects the young product with the place where it is
+found, with the fruits of a plant, and with the young ones of a bird,
+etc. Codrington reports the same conditions among the Banks Islanders.
+
+Many tribes of Central Borneo, being mentally and economically far above
+the Australian natives, assume that pregnancy only lasts four or five
+months, namely, as long as it is recognised externally in the woman,
+and that the child enters the body of the woman shortly before the sign
+of pregnancy. These tribes of Borneo also do not know that the testicles
+are necessary for propagation (Nieuwenhuis, p. 144).
+
+In Africa it has been established, at least of the Baganda, that they
+believe in the possibility of conception without cohabitation.
+Conceptional totemism, the assumption of impregnation by the animals
+venerated as totems, which exists among the Bakalai in the Congo region,
+points to a similar belief. Conceptional totemism also exists among the
+Indian tribes of North-western America (Frazer, Vol. II., pp. 506, 507,
+and 611, 612).
+
+Among the ancient Mexicans there existed, according to von Reitzenstein,
+the belief that the children come from a supernal habitation, the flower
+land, to enter into the mother. Various objects were thought to carry
+the foetal germs, especially shuttlecocks and green jewels. For this
+reason these were placed on the mat for the Mexican bridal pair after
+the marriage ceremony. The rattle club is perhaps also considered as the
+bearer of fertility. In India various trees play a _rôle_ in
+fertilisation ideas.
+
+Noteworthy is the belief found in various places that only the
+nourishment of the child is supplied by the mother before birth, while
+the germ of the new being comes from the father. This is the opinion of
+certain tribes of South-east Australia described by Howitt and the same
+belief exists among South American tribes who have the well-known
+_couvade_. Karl von den Steinen writes regarding this: "One might be
+tempted to explain this curious custom, which is very advantageous to
+the women, by the hunting life. But even if the custom suits the women,
+it is not evident why the men should have submitted to it. The father
+cuts off the navel cord of the new-born child, goes to bed, looks after
+the child, and fasts strictly until the rest of the navel cord falls off
+(or even longer). One might consider him as the professional doctor who
+also fasts like the student medicine-man, as otherwise his cure would be
+endangered and the child harmed. But not only the Xingu, but many other
+tribes, say that the father must not eat fish, meat, or fruit, as it
+would be the same as if the child itself ate them; and there is no
+reason to doubt that this is the real belief of the natives. The
+medicine-man of the village is always at disposal, and he is called in
+in all cases when the mother or child falls ill. The father is the
+patient in so far as he feels himself one with the child. Nor is it
+difficult to understand how this comes about. The native cannot very
+well know anything about the egg cell and the Graafian follicle, and he
+cannot know that the mother harbours elements corresponding to the
+bird's egg. For the native the man is the bearer of the egg, which, to
+put it clearly and concisely, he lays into the mother, and which she
+hatches during pregnancy." This idea of the _couvade_ is confirmed by
+linguistic peculiarities: there are the same or similar words for
+"father," "testicle," "egg," and "child." The child is considered part
+of the father, and therefore, as long as the child is at its weakest,
+the father must keep diet, and must avoid anything that the other could
+not digest. The child is considered the reproduction of the father, and
+"for the sake of the helpless, unintelligent creature, representing a
+miniature copy of himself, he must behave as if he were a child to whom
+no harm must come. Should the child happen to die in the first days, how
+could the father, with such views as he has, doubt that he is to blame,
+seeing that he has eaten indigestible things, particularly as all
+illnesses are due to the fault of others? What we call _pars pro toto_
+prevails in all folk belief in connection with witch or healing magic,"
+though it cannot be assumed "that the magic worker has a clear
+conception of the 'part' with which he works. The _couvade_ proceeds
+according to the same logic, only that in this case the whole stands for
+the 'part.' It comes to the same whether the enemy's hair is poisoned,
+and he is thus brought into a decline, or whether food is eaten which is
+harmful to the child detached from one's own body, because it could not
+digest it, at least not during the time when the detachment takes
+place."
+
+Besides South America and Australia, the _couvade_ is also frequent in
+Asia and Africa. Previously it existed also in South-western Europe.
+Hugo Kunike, who gives a survey of the prevalence and literature of the
+_couvade_, thinks that this custom arose from prohibitions which the man
+was subject to in matriarchal families. The prohibitions condemned the
+man to inactivity for some time after the birth, so that he took to his
+hammock. There resulted an external condition which led to an analogy
+with the lying-in period. There can, according to Kunike, be no question
+of an imitation of the woman's lying-in, for with the South American
+Indians and other primitive peoples among whom the _couvade_ is found no
+lying-in of the women occurs.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+MUTILATION OF SEX ORGANS
+
+
+Mutilations of the sex organs are performed by many primitive peoples
+for religious reasons. They occur much more rarely for the purpose of
+sex stimulation, as, _e.g._, the artificial lengthening of the small
+labia among the Hottentots and the negro women and the slitting of the
+penis among the Australians. The most frequent mutilation is the
+abscission of the foreskin of the penis. Circumcision of boys is
+widespread in Asia, Africa, and Australia. Among the Mohammedan tribes
+of Asia and the negroes of Northern and Middle Africa it is mostly
+performed with a razor. In Indonesia a sharp bamboo splinter serves as
+the instrument for operation; in other places sharp stone splinters are
+used. In addition to the familiar circular abscission of the foreskin,
+numerous primitive peoples practise incision of the foreskin, which is
+split downwards in its full length. Bleeding is stopped generally by
+very simple means, either by some kind of tampon or by styptic powders.
+In girls, as, for instance, on some of the Indonesian Islands, the
+operation often merely consists in the abscission of a small piece of
+the preputium clitoridis. Among the East African tribes, however, parts
+of the mons veneris and of the large labia are removed, generally with
+a dirty razor. After the removal of the labia the two wounds are made to
+coalesce by letting the girl lie in a suitable position, or sometimes by
+a suture, which serves the purpose of closing up the vagina. A little
+tube is inserted to allow for micturition. The united parts are again
+partly severed for marriage, and completely in case of confinement.
+After the recovery from confinement partial occlusion is again resorted
+to (Bartels, p. 271).
+
+Among the natives of Southern Asia living under the influence of Islam
+circumcision of boys is practised universally, but it is also customary
+among many peoples that are quite free from Islamitic influence.
+
+Circumcision of girls is practised by various Islamitic peoples of
+Western Asia and India. The operation is performed by old women. In
+Baroda and Bombay the clitoris is cut away, ostensibly in order to
+lessen the sensuality of the girls. In the province of Sindo the
+circumcision of girls is fairly prevalent, especially among the Pathan
+and Baluchi tribes. It is performed shortly before marriage by the
+barber's wife or a female servant, who uses a razor, and it is said to
+make the confinement easier. Among many tribes in the North-western
+border province the girls are also circumcised at the age of marriage,
+and here, besides the clitoris, the small labia are also sometimes cut
+away. In Baluchistan among some peoples the tip of the clitoris is
+pinched off; while among others the labia are slashed, so that scars
+are formed. The operation is performed partly in childhood, partly on
+the bridal night; in the latter case it assures the requisite flow of
+blood at the first coition. Among some tribes, in place of circumcision
+or in addition to it, the hymen is torn on the bridal night (should it
+still exist), and the vaginal entrance is wounded, so that bleeding is
+sure to take place at cohabitation. In Sind the castes which prostitute
+their women are said to practise partial infibulation for contracting
+the vagina. It is reported from the Punjab that formerly men leaving
+their home for a time used to close up the sex passage of the wives they
+left behind.
+
+On the Philippine Islands circumcision is frequently practised by the
+non-Christian natives, but not everywhere. The Igorots of Luzon incise
+the foreskin of boys from four to seven years old at the upper side of
+the glans with a bamboo knife or the edge of a battle axe. They say this
+is necessary in order to prevent the skin from growing longer and
+longer. No other reason is now known to them for this operation.
+Circumcision is practised by the Mohammedans of the Southern Philippine
+Islands.
+
+Incision of the foreskin is customary on the Indonesian Islands, thus,
+_e.g._, on Buru, Ceram, the Watu-Bela Islands, in the Minahassa, partly
+also in the remaining North and Central Celebes, also on Ambon and
+Halmaheira. Circumcision is customary on the Aru and Kei Islands, on the
+Ceram Laut and Goram group, in certain parts of Central Celebes, Ambon,
+etc. It is doubtful whether circumcision here is due to the influence of
+Islam.
+
+Incision is practised on various islands in the Western Pacific Ocean,
+according to Friederici (p. 45), for instance, on New Guinea, on the
+south-east coast, among the Jabim and on the Astrolabe Bay. In wide
+districts of New Guinea, however, the inhabitants are not circumcised.
+On the island Umboi, between New Guinea and New Pomerania, incision is
+customary, also in various places on the north coast of New Pomerania,
+on the Witu Islands, some islands of the Admiralty group, etc. If
+incision is performed at a very early age, the result is similar to that
+of circumcision. Frequently, however, only completely mature young men
+are circumcised; in such cases the cut foreskin hangs down as an ugly
+brown flap. It is questionable whether this intensifies the women's
+excitement. As many people as possible are circumcised, in order to have
+the opportunity for a great festival. This is the result of the liking
+for numbers shown by primitive people, which is to be met with
+everywhere. For the operation, the person is laid on his back and held
+down by relatives. The boys scream and wince at the moment of cutting;
+but the adults are ashamed before the women, and take an areca nut, into
+which they bite. Among the East Barriari on the north coast of New
+Pomerania, the operator--a wise man, but not the priest--pushes an
+oblong piece of wood under the preputium of the patient, and cuts it
+from the top downward with an obsidian splinter. The custom of incision
+is widespread in the New Hebrides, New Caledonia (with the exception of
+the Loyalty Islands), and also in Fiji.
+
+While with the Empress Augusta River expedition in New Guinea, A.
+Roesike found the foreskin cut among a number of men. It was not a
+circumcision, nor an incision of the foreskin, but a deep cut into the
+glans about 1 to 1½ centimetres long, sometimes a single one, sometimes
+a double one crosswise.
+
+Among some tribes of Indonesia a mutilation is customary, which is most
+likely intended to intensify the lust of the women. It consists in a
+perforation of the glans or the body of the male organ, into which a
+little stick is inserted. These little sticks are called _palang_,
+_ampallang_, _utang_ or _kampion_, and are replaced on journeys or at
+work by feather quills. Among some tribes several little sticks are
+stuck through the penis. Nieuwenhuis describes this operation as
+follows: "At first the glans is made bloodless by pressing it between
+the two arms of a bent strip of bamboo. At each of these arms there are
+openings at the required position opposite each other, through which a
+sharp pointed copper pin is pressed after the glans has become less
+sensitive. Formerly a pointed bamboo chip was used for this purpose. The
+bamboo clamp is removed, and the pin, fastened by a cord, is kept in the
+opening until the canal has healed up. Later on the copper pin
+(_utang_) is replaced by another one, generally of tin, which is worn
+constantly. Only during hard work or at exhausting enterprises is the
+metal pin replaced by a wooden one." Exceptionally brave men have the
+privilege, together with the chief, of boring a second canal, crossing
+the first, into the glans. Distinguished men may, in addition, wear a
+ring round the penis, which is cut from the scales of the _pangolin_,
+and studded with blunt points. It may hence be concluded that the
+perforation of the penis is not intended as an endurance test for the
+young men, but that the pin is introduced for the heightening of sexual
+excitement. Many natives assert that the insertion of a pin in the
+perforated penis has the purpose of preventing pederasty, which is very
+frequent among the Malays (compare Nieuwenhuis, Vol. I., p. 78; Kleiweg
+de Zwaan, p. 301; Meyer, p. 878; Hose and McDougall, Vol. II., p. 170;
+Buschan, 1912, p. 240).
+
+Among the Australians the slitting of the male urethra is frequently
+practised. Formerly it was believed that this custom was intended to
+prevent conception. But as the Australians who are not under European
+influence are ignorant of the process of generation, this cannot be its
+meaning. The operation is generally performed in boyhood or early youth,
+but even adult men undergo it. Where this operation on the urethra is
+customary, the hymen of the girls is cut, the cut often going through
+the perineum. Many tribes practise simple circumcision. Among the
+Australian tribe Worgait, for instance, certain relatives decide about
+the circumcision of the boys. After a previous elaborate ceremonial the
+boy who is to be circumcised is laid on the backs of three men lying on
+the ground; another man sits on his chest, one holds his legs apart, and
+the sixth performs the operation by drawing the foreskin forward and
+cutting it off with a sharp splinter of stone. The group is hidden from
+the view of the women by a screen made of pieces of bark. Afterwards the
+youth is instructed by old men how he must behave as a man, and he is
+informed about the matters kept secret from women. He remains for
+another two months under the supervision of two sons of his maternal
+uncle, and has further to go through a number of ceremonies. Other
+tribes of the Australian North Territory have similar customs.
+
+Circumcision among the Hamites of East Africa is particularly elaborate.
+As an example we may take the pastoral tribe of the Nandi. These people
+used to circumcise boys every seven and a half years, and celebrated the
+occasion with great festivals. Since 1905 circumcision takes place at
+shorter intervals. The usual age for circumcision is from the fifteenth
+to the nineteenth year. Younger boys are only circumcised if they are
+rich orphans, or if their fathers are old men. The ceremony begins at
+the time of the first quarter of the moon. Three days before the
+operation the boys are given over by their fathers or guardians into
+the charge of old men, called _moterenic_, as many as ten boys going to
+two of these men. The _moterenic_ and their boys betake themselves to a
+neighbouring wood, where they build a hut, in which they spend the six
+months after the circumcision. The boys have their heads shaved and are
+given a strong aperient of Arsidia sp. Warriors visit the hut, and take
+away all the boys' clothes and ornaments. Then young girls visit the
+boys and give them a part of their clothing and ornaments. After the
+boys have put these on they inform their relations of the forthcoming
+circumcision. There is dancing on the next day, after which the warriors
+draw the boys aside to discover from their expressions whether they will
+behave cowardly or bravely at the circumcision. After this examination
+the boys receive necklaces from their girl friends, with which they
+decorate themselves. After sunset they must listen to the sharpening of
+the operating knife. Warriors are present, and tease the boys. Later on
+all undress, and a procession is formed with a _moterenic_ at the head
+and rear of it. Four times they have to crawl through a small cage,
+where warriors are stationed at the entrance and exit with nettles and
+hornets. With the former they beat the boys in the face and on the sex
+organs; the hornets they set on their backs. A fire is kept burning in
+the middle of the room, around which old men are seated. Each boy has to
+step before them and beg for permission to be circumcised. He is
+questioned about his early life; and if the old men think that he has
+told an untruth or is hiding something, he is put among nettles. If the
+old men are satisfied with his words, the price of the circumcision has
+to be arranged, whereupon the boys are led back to their huts. There the
+warriors and elders assemble the next morning, and at dawn the
+circumcision begins. The boy to be circumcised is supported by the
+senior _moterenic_, the others sitting close by and looking on. The
+operator kneels before the boy, and with a quick cut performs the first
+part of the operation; the foreskin is drawn forward and cut off at the
+tip of the glans penis. The surrounding men watch the boy's face in
+order to see whether he winces or shows any sign of pain. If this is the
+case, he is called a coward, and receives the dishonourable nickname of
+_kilpit_; he is not allowed to be present at later circumcisions nor at
+the children's dances. The brave boys receive bundles of ficus from the
+women, who welcome them with cries of joy when they return the necklaces
+which they have previously received from their girl friends. The
+foreskins are collected and placed in an ox horn. Friends and relatives
+make merry together, while the second part of the operation begins. At
+this only sterile girls may be present, and also women who have lost
+several brothers and sisters at short intervals. Many boys become
+unconscious during this part of the operation. The wounds are only
+washed with cold water, and the boys are led back to their huts, where
+they spend some weeks quietly. During the first four days they are not
+allowed to touch food with their hands; they must eat either out of a
+half-calabash or with the help of some leaves. They get what they like,
+also milk and meat. But, apart from their _moterenic_, nobody may come
+near them for four days. Afterwards the hand-washing ceremony is
+performed; the foreskins are taken out of the ox horn, sacrificed to
+their god, and then buried in cowdung at the foot of a croton tree. Now
+the boys may eat with their hands again, but still no one may see them
+except the young children who bring them food. Three months later, when
+the boys are quite well again, they have to go through a new ceremony,
+during which they have to dive repeatedly into the river. If one of them
+should meet with an accident, his father has to kill a goat. Only now
+may the boys move about freely, but they still have to wear women's
+clothes (as hitherto) and a special head-dress that hides their faces.
+They must not enter a cattle kraal nor come near the cattle, nor are
+they allowed to be outdoors when the hyena howls. This period of
+semi-seclusion lasts about eight weeks. Its conclusion is celebrated by
+a feast. Still more ceremonies follow, and again a feast, after which
+the boys finally enter the status of manhood.
+
+Girls are circumcised when some of them in the settlement have reached
+marriage age. They are shaved, given aperients, have to put on men's
+clothes, which they receive from their lovers, and take their clubs,
+loin bells, etc. After three days' ceremonial the circumcision is
+performed in the morning, at which the mothers and some old women are
+present; men are only admitted when they have lost several brothers and
+sisters in succession. The mothers run about crying and shouting during
+the operation. Only the clitoris is cut out. If a girl behaves bravely,
+she may return the clothes and other things of her lover, otherwise they
+are thrown away. The girls, too, must not touch food with their hands
+for four days; afterwards they are put into long dresses with a kind of
+head mask, and have to go through a period of seclusion. After the
+completion of various other formalities they are fit for marriage
+(Hollis, 1909, pp. 52 _et seq._).
+
+No satisfactory explanation has so far been forthcoming of the purpose
+of these elaborate circumcision customs. Similar customs are observed by
+other Hamites of Eastern Africa.
+
+Among the Masai there exists the belief that circumcision was introduced
+by the command of God (Merker, p. 60). After the circumcision boys and
+girls are considered grown up. The former have to be circumcised as soon
+as they are strong enough to take part in a war expedition. The
+circumcision of sons whose parents have no property and of poor orphans
+takes place last of all. For the meat banquet which the newly
+circumcised hold every one present has to supply an ox. Poor boys must
+first acquire it by working for it. The circumcision is a public affair,
+and is arranged by the witch doctor in certain years. The old men
+consult in all the districts, and fix a day for the circumcision of the
+first batch of boys. All the boys circumcised during a certain number of
+years form an age class with a particular name (as among the Nandi).
+Several weeks before the circumcision the boys, adorned with many
+ornaments, dance and sing in their own and neighbouring kraals, in order
+to express their joy at their approaching admission into the warrior
+class. On the day before the circumcision the boys' heads are shaved. On
+the appointed day itself the boys and the warriors who are present at
+the operation assemble before dawn at the place chosen by the operators.
+The boys pour cold water over each other, so as to become less
+sensitive. After the operation the wounded member is washed with milk;
+no remedy for stopping the bleeding is applied. Later on all the men of
+the neighbourhood assemble in the kraal, where they are regaled with
+meat and honey beer by the parents of the newly circumcised boys. The
+girls are circumcised as soon as signs of puberty become evident,
+sometimes even earlier. The operation consists in a complete abscission
+of the clitoris. The wound, as with the boys, is washed in milk. The
+girl remains in her mother's hut until the wound is healed. As soon as
+the man to whom the girl is promised as bride hears of her recovery he
+pays her father the remaining part of the bride-price, and nothing more
+stands in the way of the marriage.
+
+Among the Somals in North-east Africa the boys are circumcised when six
+years old, and the girls are infibulated at three or four years of age.
+The infibulation is preceded by the shortening of the clitoris and the
+clipping of the external labia. The operation is performed by
+experienced women, who also sew up the inner labia (except for a small
+aperture) with horse-hair, bast, or cotton thread. The girls have to
+rest for several days with their legs tied together. Before marriage the
+above-mentioned women or the girls themselves undo the stitching, which,
+however, is in most cases only severed completely before the confinement
+(Paulitschke, p. 24).
+
+In Western Africa most peoples practise the circumcision of boys. The
+age at which this takes place varies greatly. The Duala in Cameron have
+the boys circumcised when four or five years old, the Bakwiri as late as
+the twelfth to fourteenth year, and the Dahomey even postpone the
+circumcision to the twentieth year. But it always takes place before
+marriage, as women would refuse to have relationship with uncircumcised
+men (Buschan, "Sitten," III., p. 40).
+
+A peculiar disfigurement of the sex organs is customary among the
+Hottentots, Bushmen, and many Bantu tribes of Middle and South Africa.
+This consists in the artificial elongation of the small labia. It was
+first observed among the Hottentot women, and therefore the elongated
+labia were called the "Hottentot apron." Among the Jao, Makonde, and
+other East African Bantu tribes, the girls at the ages of seven, eight,
+or nine years are instructed by old women about sex intercourse and
+their behaviour towards grown-up people. At the same time they are
+encouraged to systematically alter the natural shape of the genital
+organs by continually pulling at the labia minora and thus unnaturally
+lengthening them. Karl Weule has seen such disfigured organs from 7 to 8
+centimetres long. According to the assertion of numerous male natives,
+the elongated labia assume such dimensions that they hang half-way down
+to the knee. The main purpose of this disfiguration seems to be erotic;
+it is said to excite the men. The assumption that the labia minora are
+naturally exceptionally large among the Hottentots is certainly wrong.
+Karl Weule is right when he definitely maintains that his proof of the
+artificial elongation of the labia among the East Africans establishes
+it as an indubitable fact that the famous Hottentot apron is also an
+artificial product. Le Vaillant established this independently almost
+100 years before Weule; but the error dragged on from decade to decade,
+chiefly because nobody troubled or had the good fortune to study the
+puberty rites as Weule did. It is time at last to give up this erroneous
+idea.
+
+Among the Jaos the operation of the boys consists in a combination of
+incision with circumcision so that only a tiny piece of the under-part
+of the preputium remains. The boy must show courage at the operation.
+Screams, if they occur, are drowned by the laughter of the bystanders.
+Bleeding is stilled by bark powder. The boys have to lie down for about
+twenty days or more, until healing has taken place. As usual,
+circumcision is combined with instruction about sex behaviour.
+
+In former times the Jaos are said to have imposed castration as a
+punishment on men for misbehaviour with the chief's wife (Weule, pp. 29,
+35). Castration still takes place for this reason among other negro
+races, especially the Mohammedan Sudanese.
+
+In North America the few Indians still living in a state of nature do
+not practise mutilation of the sex organs. In South America circumcision
+exists among the linguistically isolated tribes and the neighbouring
+Aruake and Karaib tribes of the north-west, also among the tribes on the
+Ucayali and the tributaries of the Apure (W. Schmidt, p. 1048). The
+Kayapo Indians on the Araguay river cut the frenulum of the penis with a
+taquara splinter, and the penis cuff is fastened on to the rolled-up
+foreskin (W. Kissenberth, p. 55).
+
+The purpose of circumcision is probably to prolong the sex act, for the
+bare glans is less sensitive than the covered one. Friederici says (p.
+89) that the black boys congregating on the stations and plantations
+frequently discuss these matters amongst themselves; they know that the
+glans of the circumcised is much less sensitive than that of the
+uncircumcised. Many authors are of the opinion that the abscission or
+incision of the foreskin in boys has the purpose of making cohabitation
+easier in later years, as this is often made difficult by phimosis
+(tightness of the foreskin). Külz (p. 40) found that among the youthful
+plantation workers in New Mecklenburg nearly a quarter were afflicted
+with phimosis, and often to such a degree that normal sex functioning
+was quite impossible. But such a condition does not seem to prevail
+among most of the primitive peoples practising circumcision. And,
+further, of what use would mutilations be that had nothing to do with
+tightness of the foreskin?
+
+The prolonged festivals and elaborate ceremonials which are so often
+connected with the circumcision of boys and of girls, or with their
+admission to the state of manhood and womanhood (without accompanying
+circumcision), are intended to preserve the event in the memory. The
+long ceremony is deeply impressed upon the mind, and forms a firm
+nucleus round which other memories cluster which otherwise would be lost
+in the humdrum of ordinary life. How could the time of entry into
+manhood remain without ceremonious festival? This seems all the more
+necessary because the growth into manhood is gradual and almost
+unnoticeable, and if there were no ceremony, it would pass without
+making any impression. It is therefore the intention not only to give
+expression to the beginning virility, but above all to the admission
+into the league of youth (Schurtz, pp. 95, 96).
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+MATURITY AND DECLINE
+
+
+Among all human races the signs of maturity appear later and less
+distinctly in the male than in the female. In Europeans the period of
+puberty coincides with the second period of increased bodily growth,
+which ceases in the male between the sixteenth and the eighteenth year,
+and in the female between the fourteenth and the sixteenth year. The end
+of the puberty period may, however, in individual cases, be postponed
+for some years. The exact time of the advent of sex maturity, which, on
+account of their menstruation, can be fixed much more readily in girls
+than in boys, varies not only individually, but racially. The same
+applies to the difference in time between the advent of maturity and the
+cessation of bodily growth. Sexual maturity, as well as the cessation of
+bodily growth, takes place much earlier in Europeans than in some of the
+primitive peoples. Among other primitive peoples, however, maturity
+occurs comparatively late, and bodily growth ceases shortly after. To
+the latter belong certainly some of the peoples living in the tropics.
+
+The opinion still prevails that climate has a considerable influence on
+the advent of maturity. Rudolf Martin (1915) remarks: "Races living in
+the tropics grow more quickly and mature earlier than the races living
+in temperate zones. This is undoubtedly due to the earlier advent of
+puberty."
+
+As regards the Japanese, E. Baelz had already in 1891 disputed the
+statement that they mature early. He found, however, that the growth of
+both sexes ceases in Japan earlier than in Europe; still sex maturity in
+the female does not occur earlier. According to the concordant
+statements of female teachers of various girls' schools, the Japanese
+girls, in fact, reach maturity later than European girls, and half-caste
+girls take a medium position.
+
+Since then reliable data about the advent of maturity among non-European
+races have seldom been given, but those to hand show that most probably
+even among coloured primitive people puberty generally occurs late.
+
+Very important material has been collected by O. Reche in Matupi (New
+Pomerania, Melanesia), with the assistance of the Catholic mission of
+the place. He found that the rhythm of growth of the Melanesians
+corresponds on the whole to that of the Europeans, except that the
+growth ceases altogether a few years earlier. Development in height is
+finished on the whole in girls at the beginning of the seventeenth year,
+and in boys in the eighteenth year. But, as regards the advent of
+puberty, Reche's researches led to the surprising result that all Matupi
+girls, with the exception of those seventeen years old, had not yet
+menstruated. Reche remarks that this strikingly late appearance of
+menstruation is also known to the missionaries, because in order to
+prevent early marriages they only consent to the marriage of a girl
+after the first menstruation has taken place. Reche's experience is in
+strong contradiction to the belief formerly taken for granted, for
+puberty occurs among these inhabitants of the tropics not only not
+earlier, but, on the contrary, later than with the Europeans living in
+temperate climates. Of importance is the fact that in the Matupi natives
+puberty coincides with the highest point of the curve of growth, namely,
+with the end of the development in height. Puberty commences when growth
+ceases. It almost seems as if the advent of maturity absorbs all the
+strength and hinders further growth. It is quite different with
+Europeans in this respect: the beginning of puberty falls with them in
+the second period of growth (in boys the twelfth to the sixteenth, in
+girls the eleventh to the fourteenth year), and therefore long before
+growth ceases altogether.
+
+It would seem that the conditions existing among Europeans are the
+primitive state, as with the majority of animals also puberty begins
+before the cessation of growth.
+
+Reche reports further that, corresponding to the late puberty, the
+secondary sexual characteristics also appear exceptionally late in
+Matupi children. This is the chief reason why the boys and girls,
+especially as they are small, appear remarkably young even shortly
+before maturity, and why their age seems much less than it actually is.
+The first beginning of the change from the areola mamma to the budding
+breast shows itself among the Matupi girls not before the sixteenth
+year; the development of the breast seems to coincide with the first
+menstruation. Axillary hair did not appear in sixteen-year-old Matupi
+girls, with one exception; and it was scanty in those seventeen years
+old, though it is generally copious in adults. There was also no trace
+of a beard in seventeen-year-old boys, though it is well developed in
+the older men. It must be added that the late differentiation of
+secondary sexual characteristics is also noticeable among other coloured
+races, as, _e.g._, among the Philippines and other Indonesian races.
+
+Among the Papuans of New Guinea also sex maturity occurs late. As
+Richard Neuhaus wrote, according to information given by missionaries
+who have lived for a long time among the natives on Tami and among the
+Jabim, the first menstruation generally appears in the fifteenth to
+sixteenth year. Young males look very undeveloped up to the sixteenth
+year. Neuhaus thought this late maturity was the result of bad feeding,
+though it does not appear from his other descriptions that the economic
+conditions of the Papuans are especially unfavourable.
+
+A. E. Jenks reports of the Igorots on Luzon that boys as well as girls
+attain puberty at a late age, generally between fourteen and sixteen
+years. The civilised Ilkano people settled among the Igorots definitely
+declare that the girls do not menstruate before they have reached the
+sixteenth or seventeenth year. A considerable error as regards their age
+seems to be excluded with these people, who have lived a long time under
+European influence.
+
+Of the Andamanese, a pigmy race, Portman and Molesworth write that
+puberty appears in boys and girls round about the fifteenth year. Bodily
+growth is finished at eighteen years, and is in any case after maturity
+very trivial.
+
+Eugen Fischer makes the following statements about the Bastards in
+German South-west Africa: "In one family five out of six daughters
+menstruated for the first time at the age of fifteen, one at the age of
+sixteen. One Bastard woman had first menstruated at the age of
+seventeen, three of her daughters at thirteen, the fourth, who was
+anæmic, at seventeen. Another Bastard woman, who herself had her first
+menstruation at fifteen, had two daughters from a white man who had
+reached puberty at sixteen and seventeen years of age. A girl with
+distinct anæmia stated that she had had her first period at sixteen
+years, her sister even as late as eighteen," Fischer knows of three
+girls that became mature at sixteen, fourteen, and thirteen years. L.
+Schultze reports that with the Hottentots the first menstruation
+appears, as a rule, between the ages of thirteen and fifteen.
+
+There is, unfortunately, no information to be had about the negroes
+with regard to this subject. The puberty rites practised by them give no
+clue to the real age at the advent of puberty.
+
+Ales Hrdlicka (pp. 125-129) tried to determine the age of puberty among
+Indian girls of the south-west of the United States by their height, as
+definite statements of age are not to be had. This method is not without
+objection, for it is certain that individuals who have attained puberty
+are decidedly taller than persons of the same age who have not reached
+maturity. Hrdlicka found that of those examined in the twelfth or
+thirteenth year one-third of the Apache girls and as many as
+three-quarters of the Pima girls had already menstruated. In the age
+class of thirteen to fourteen years four-fifths of the Apache and
+nine-tenths of the Pima girls had already menstruated, while of
+forty-six older girls only one had not yet attained puberty. The first
+signs of breast development were noticed by Hrdlicka in clothed Indian
+maidens whose ages he estimated to be from eleven to twelve years. But
+it was only between fifteen and seventeen that the girls acquired the
+typical womanly form; until then they have, as Hrdlicka says, "a
+somewhat male appearance." In youths the beard begins to grow at the
+fifteenth or sixteenth year. The climate is moderate in the country of
+the Apache and Pima Indians; the days are decidedly hot in the low-lying
+regions, but the nights are generally cold in these regions, even in
+summer.
+
+In comparison it may be noted that, according to H. P. Bowditch's
+investigations in Boston, nearly four-fifths of the white girls born in
+America mature between the thirteenth and seventeenth year. Puberty is
+reached relatively most often between the ages of fourteen and fifteen,
+though over 40 per cent. of 575 girls examined had not yet menstruated
+at the completed fifteenth year.
+
+Within one and the same race the conditions of life seem to have a great
+influence on the age of puberty and bodily development. Unfavourable
+conditions produce a retardation of puberty; favourable conditions
+accelerate it. This may be the chief cause why the beginning of puberty
+varies individually by several years.
+
+There exists so far no definite explanation of the racial differences in
+the age of puberty. Reche says, "It is conceivable that the
+characteristically late maturity of a tropical race (like that of the
+Melanesians) may gradually have been acquired by the unfavourable
+influence of too hot a climate or of continual underfeeding acting on
+many generations."
+
+It is remarkable that, in contradistinction to the Melanesians, the
+Indians become mature very early, and the same applies most likely to
+the Australians. In India, as in Australia, sexual intercourse is begun
+at a very youthful age, among the girls often long before the first
+menstruation. It is possible that on account of this the age of puberty
+is lowered, so that girls who mature late are more easily injured and
+perish in greater number than the girls maturing earlier, who are less
+injured by the premature sexual intercourse. The male sex may have been
+influenced in the same direction through heredity.
+
+Just as physical maturity, so is the cessation of generative power and
+bodily decline more marked in women than in men. In Middle and Northern
+Europe, procreation generally ceases with women of an age between
+forty-five and fifty years. Numerous birth statistics from all countries
+of this continent show that birth in women over fifty years old is very
+rare. It is not quite clear how the case stands in this respect among
+the coloured races. Hrdlicka reports of the North American Indian women
+that with them the climacterium occurs apparently at about the same age
+as with European women. It must be taken into consideration that
+accurate statements of age are wanting, and that the age of Indian women
+can easily be greatly overrated. Otherwise it has generally been
+reported of coloured women that they age rapidly, and that their
+reproductive period is comparatively short. In North-west Brazil the
+Indian girls marry as soon as in their tenth to twelfth year, on account
+of their rapid development. Early maturity and marriage may be one of
+the chief causes of their rapid decline. The Indian women are generally
+beyond their prime at the age of twenty. Their straight figure is
+frequently covered with a disgusting accumulation of fat, and the
+elasticity of movement gives way to indolence. Other women become very
+thin after several confinements, their features become sharp and bony,
+and among old women one often comes across real hag-like creatures with
+half-blind, running eyes (Koch-Grünberg, II., p. 149).
+
+In India the women of the Dravidian as well as of the Mongolian races
+age rapidly. Their generative power rarely lasts longer than the
+beginning of the forties. Among the pigmies the time of procreation is
+said to be equally short (Portman and Molesworth). Spencer and Gillen
+say that with the Australian women a rapid bodily decline takes place as
+early as the twenty-fifth and at the latest in the thirtieth year, which
+cannot be attributed to exceptional privations or harsh treatment. The
+Australian women apparently reach the age of fifty years or more only
+exceptionally.
+
+Jochelson (pp. 413 _et seq._) writes that the Koryak women age very
+rapidly. They cease to bear children at about the age of forty. Other
+travellers have made statements about the great age that the Koryaks are
+said to attain. Jochelson's thorough-going investigations showed that of
+284 persons only thirteen could possibly have been over sixty-five years
+old, and among them there was only one really old man.
+
+Schultze (p. 297) mentions two Hottentot women who had given birth at
+the age of forty-seven, and another who still had her period at
+fifty-five. Among the negresses late births also occur. Unfortunately,
+ethnographical literature only rarely gives facts with regard to this
+subject.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+AMUNDSEN, R. Die Nordwestpassage. München, 1908.
+
+BAELZ, E. Die körperlichen Eigenschaften der Japaner. Bd. 2.
+
+BAELZ, E. Das Wachstum der Geschlechter. Verhandl. d. Berliner Ges. f.
+Anthropologie, 1901, S. 211.
+
+BAGGE, S. The Circumcision Ceremony among the Naivasha Masai. Journal
+Anthropol. Inst., Vol. 34, pp. 167-169.
+
+BARTELS, M. Die Medizin der Naturvölker. Leipzig, 1893.
+
+BLUMENTRITT, FERD. Versuch einer Ethnographie der Philippinen. Gotha,
+1882.
+
+BOGORAS, W. The Chukchee. Leiden and New York, 1904-1909 (Memoirs of the
+American Museum of Natural History).
+
+BOWDITCH, H. P. The Growth of Children. Eighth Annual Report of the
+State Board of Health, State of Massachusetts. Boston, 1877.
+
+BRINCKER, H. P. Charakter, Sitten und Gebräuche speziell der Bantu
+Deutsch-Südwestafrikas. Mitt. d. Sem. f. Orient. Sprachen, III.3.
+
+BUSCHAN, GEORG. Das Sexuelle in der Völkerkunde. Handbuch der
+Sexualwissenschaften. Leipzig, 1912.
+
+BUSCHAN, GEORG. Die Sitten der Völker. Stuttgart, 1914-1915.
+
+CODRINGTON, R. H. The Melanesians. Oxford, 1891.
+
+CRAWLEY, A. E. Exogamy and the Mating of Cousins. Anthropological
+Essays presented to E. B. Tylor. Oxford, 1907.
+
+CUNOW, H. Zur Urgeschichte der Ehe und Familie. Stuttgart, 1912.
+
+DEEGENER, P. Die Formen der Vergesellschaftung im Tierreich. Leipzig,
+1918.
+
+ELLIS, H. The Evolution of Modesty, 2nd ed. Philadelphia, 1913.
+
+ENDLE, S. The Kacháris. London, 1911.
+
+EYLMANN, E. Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien. Berlin, 1908.
+
+FISCHER, EUGEN. Die Rehobother Bastards. Jena, 1913.
+
+FRAZER, J. G. Totemism and Exogamy. London, 1913.
+
+FRIEDERICI, GEORG. Beiträge zur Völker- und Sprachenkunde von
+Deutsch-Neuguinea. Berlin, 1912. Mitt. a. d. Deutschen Schutzgeb.,
+Ergänzungsheft 5.
+
+FROBENIUS, LEO. Und Afrika sprach! Vol. 3: Unter den unsträflichen
+Äthiopen. Charlottenburg, 1913.
+
+GAIT, E. A. Census of India, Vol. 1, Part 1. Calcutta, 1913.
+
+GERSON, ADOLF. Die Scham. Bonn, 1919.
+
+HAHN, ED. Von der Hacke zum Pflug. Leipzig, 1914.
+
+HELLWALD, F. Die menschliche Familie. Leipzig, 1888.
+
+HINLOPEN u. SEVERIJN. Verslag van een onderzoek der Poggieilanden in
+1852. Tijdschrift vor Ind. Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, II., p. 327.
+
+HODSON, T. C. The Naga Tribes of Manipur. London, 1911.
+
+HOLLIS, A. C. The Masai. Oxford, 1905.
+
+HOLLIS, A. C. The Nandi. Oxford, 1909.
+
+HOSE, C., and MCDOUGALL, W. The Pagan Tribes of Borneo. London, 1912.
+
+HOWITT, A. C. The Native Tribes of South-east Australia. London, 1904.
+
+HRDLICKA, ALES. Physiological and Medical Observations among the
+Indians. Washington, 1908.
+
+IYER, A. K. Cochin Tribes and Castes. Madras, 1909.
+
+JAGORS NACHLASS. Bd. 1, Berlin, 1914.
+
+JENKS, A. E. The Bontoc Igorot. Manila, 1905.
+
+JOCHELSON, W. The Koryak. Leiden and New York, 1908 (Memoirs of the
+American Museum of Natural History).
+
+KISSENBERTH, W. Araguayareise. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1912.
+
+KLEIWEG DE ZWAAN, J. P. Heilkunde der Minangkabauer. In: Maass, Durch
+Zentralsumatra, Vol. 2, Berlin, 1912.
+
+KNOCHE, W. Beobachtungen über Geschlechtsleben und Niederkunft auf der
+Osterinsel. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1912.
+
+KNOCHE, W. Einige Bemerkungen über die Uti-Krag. Ebenda, 1913.
+
+KOCH-GRÜNBERG, THEODOR. Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern. Berlin, 1910.
+
+KÜLZ, L. Biologie und Pathologie des Nachwuchses bei den Naturvölkern
+der deutschen Schutzgebiete. Leipzig, 1919 (Beiheft zum Archiv für
+Schiffs- u. Tropenhygiene).
+
+KUNIKE, HUGO. Das sogenannte Männerkindbett. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie,
+1911.
+
+LANG, A. Australian Problems. Essays presented to E. B. Tylor. Oxford,
+1907.
+
+MARTIN, RUDOLF. Die Inlandstämme der malayischen Halbinsel. Jena, 1905.
+
+MARTIN, RUDOLF. Lehrbuch der Anthropologie. Jena, 1914.
+
+MCLENNAN, J. F. Studies in Ancient History. London, 1886.
+
+MERKER, M. Die Masai. Berlin, 1905.
+
+MEYER, A. B. Über die Perforation des Penis bei den Malayen. Mitt. der
+Anthrop. Gesellschaft Wien, Bd. 7, 1878.
+
+MORGAN, L. H. Die Urgesellschaft. Stuttgart, 1891.
+
+MÜLLER, JOSEF. Das sexuelle Leben der Naturvölker. Leipzig, 1906.
+
+MÜLLER, W. Die Wildenstämme der Insel Formosa. Zeitschrift für
+Ethnologie, 1910.
+
+NANSEN, F. Eskimoleben. Berlin, 1903.
+
+NEUHAUSS, R. Deutsch-Neuguinea, Bd. 1. Berlin, 1911.
+
+NIEUWENHUIS, A. W. Quer durch Borneo. Leiden, 1904.
+
+PAULITSCHKE, PHILIPP. Beiträge zur Ethnographie und Anthropologie der
+Somal usw. Leipzig, 1886.
+
+PEAL, E. S. On the Morong. Journal of the Anthropological Institute,
+Vol. 22.
+
+PLAYFAIR, A. The Garos. London, 1909.
+
+PLOSS, H., und BARTELS, M. Das Weib in der Natur- und Völkerkunde, 9.
+Aufl. Leipzig, 1908.
+
+PORTMAN and MOLESWORTH. Record of the Andamanese, 1893-1898. MS. in
+British Museum.
+
+RECHE, OTTO. Untersuchungen über das Wachstum und die Geschlechtsreife
+bei melanesischen Kindern. Korrespondenzbl. d. D. Ges. f. Anthropol.,
+41. Jahrg., Nr. 7.
+
+REED, W. The Negrito of Zambales. Manila, 1904.
+
+REITZENSTEIN, FERDINAND VON. Der Kausalzusammenhang zwischen
+Geschlechtsverkehr und Empfängnis in Glaube und Branch der Natur- und
+Kulturvölker. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 41. Jahrg., 1909, S. 644-683.
+
+RIVERS, W. H. R. The Toda. London, 1906.
+
+RIVERS, W. H. R. On the Origin of the Classificatory System of
+Relationship. Essays presented to E. B. Tylor. Oxford, 1907.
+
+ROESIKE, A. Ethnographische Ergebnisse der Kaiserin.
+Augusta-Fluß-Expedition. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1914.
+
+ROSCOE, JOHN. The Baganda. London, 1911.
+
+ROSCOE, JOHN. The Bahima. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol.
+37.
+
+SARASIN, PAUL und FRITZ. Ergebnisse naturwissenschaftlicher
+Forschungsreisen auf Ceylon, Bd. 3. Wiesbaden, 1892-1893.
+
+SCHMIDT, WILHELM. Kulturkreise und Kulturschichten in Südamerika.
+Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1913.
+
+SCHULTZE, L. Aus Namaland und Kalahari. Jena, 1907.
+
+SCHURTZ, HEINRICH. Altersklassen und Männerbünde. Berlin, 1902.
+
+SCHWEINFURTH, GEORG. Im Herzen von Afrika. 3rd ed. Leipzig, 1908.
+
+SELIGMANN, C. G. The Melanesians of British New Guinea. Cambridge, 1910.
+
+SPENCER, BALDWIN. Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia.
+London, 1914.
+
+SPENCER, BALDWIN, and GILLEN, F. The Native Tribes of Central Australia.
+London, 1899.
+
+SPENCER, BALDWIN, and GILLEN, F. The Northern Tribes of Central
+Australia. London, 1904.
+
+STEINEN, KARL V. D. Unter den Naturvölkern Zentralbrasiliens. Berlin,
+1894.
+
+THEAL, G. M. The Yellow and Dark-skinned People of Africa South of the
+Zambesi. London, 1910.
+
+THOMSON, BASIL H. The Fijians. London, 1908.
+
+THURNWALD, R. Ethno-psychologische Studien. Leipzig, 1913.
+
+WESTERMARCK, E. History of Human Marriage. London, 1891.
+
+WEULE, KARL. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse meiner ethnogr.
+Forschungsreise in den Südosten Deutsch-Ostafrikas. Berlin, 1908. Mitt.
+a. d. D. Schutzgeb., Erg.-Heft 1.
+
+WILKEN, G. A. Handleiding voor de vergelijkende Volkenkunde van
+Nederl.-Indië. Leiden, 1893.
+
+WILLIAMSON, ROBERT W. The Mafulu. London, 1912.
+
+
+THE WHITEFRIARS PRESS, LTD., LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.
+
+
+
+
+_By S. HERBERT, M.D., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P._
+
+AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
+
+PHYSIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX
+
+Large Crown 8vo, with 49 Illustrations in the Text.
+Price +7s. 6d.+ net (by post, 8/1).
+
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+     free from technicalities, of the principal phenomena of generation,
+     Dr. Herbert's book is the best that we have seen."--_Cambridge
+     Review._
+
+     "It is therefore a real satisfaction to find a sex manual which may
+     be placed with confidence in the hands of any educated person....
+     He has certainly produced the best little manual which we yet
+     possess in this field."--HAVELOCK ELLIS in _Eugenics Review_.
+
+
+FUNDAMENTALS IN SEXUAL ETHICS
+
+AN ENQUIRY INTO MODERN TENDENCIES
+
+Large Crown 8vo, Cloth. Price +12s. 6d.+ net (by post, 13/4).
+
+     "Dr. Herbert is a thoughtful and enlightened writer, fully informed
+     with regard to the modern literature and modern research on sexual
+     matters. He treats with knowledge all the urgent sexual questions
+     and sexual phenomena, normal and abnormal, and attempts to
+     construct a sexual ethic on biological and physiological
+     facts."--_The Times._
+
+     " ... the book is a successful attempt to deal with a difficult
+     subject, and it deserves to be widely read."--_The Prescriber._
+
+
+THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY
+
+Second Edition, Large Crown 8vo, containing 75 Illustrations.
+Price +7s. 6d.+ net (by post, 8/1).
+
+     "We have only praise for the result of Dr. Herbert's attempt to
+     provide us with a simple and brief, but at the same time scientific
+     and comprehensive, survey of our present knowledge concerning the
+     laws of heredity, their working and significance."--_Eugenics
+     Review._
+
+
+THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF EVOLUTION
+
+Second Edition, Revised, Large Crown 8vo, containing 90 Illustrations.
+Price +12s. 6d.+ net (by post, 13/6).
+
+     "Contains not a single dry page--far and away the most compact and
+     complete account of evolution in all its aspects."--_Globe._
+
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+
+SEX LORE. A Primer on Courtship, Marriage, and Parenthood.
+
+Large Crown 8vo, containing 55 Illustrations.
+Price +7s. 6d.+ net (by post, 8/1).
+
+     "The author in simple, non-technical language expounds the main
+     facts of sex, especially with regard to biology and physiology, and
+     she treats this delicate subject in a tactful manner. A special
+     feature of the book is the large number of illustrations. The
+     volume is intended for the 'younger generation,' but parents and
+     teachers would be well advised to peruse the book, which should
+     prove invaluable for educative purposes."--_Medical Times._
+
+     " ... may be left with confidence in the hands of any educated
+     person who is attaining to manhood or womanhood."--_Aberdeen Daily
+     Journal._
+
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+
+A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1
+
+
+
+
+THE NEW HORIZON IN LOVE AND LIFE
+
+By Mrs. HAVELOCK ELLIS
+
+WITH A PREFACE BY EDWARD CARPENTER AND AN INTRODUCTION BY MARGUERITE
+TRACY
+
+_Demy 8vo._      PRICE +10/6+ NET      (_By Post, 11s._)
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+PART I
+
+LOVE AND MARRIAGE
+
+THE LOVE OF TO-MORROW
+A NOVICIATE FOR MARRIAGE
+SEMI-DETACHED MARRIAGE
+MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
+EUGENICS AND THE MYSTICAL OUTLOOK
+EUGENICS AND SPIRITUAL PARENTHOOD
+BLOSSOMING-TIME
+LOVE AS A FINE ART
+
+
+PART II
+
+THE NEW CIVILISATION
+
+DEMOCRACY IN THE KITCHEN
+THE MASSES AND THE CLASSES
+THE MATERNAL IN DOMESTIC AND POLITICAL LIFE
+POLITICAL MILITANCY: ITS CAUSE AND CURE
+WAR: AN ANCIENT VIRTUE AND A MODERN VICE
+THE NEW CIVILISATION
+THE PHILOSOPHY OF HAPPINESS
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+INDEX
+
+     "Mrs. Havelock Ellis has written a fine and beautiful book,
+     although many of her ideas appear too Utopian to be practical. It
+     is thoughtful and pure in tone, offering no inducement to the
+     prurient of mind, and her chapter on 'Blossoming-Time'--the tactful
+     enlightenment of children--is a lovely piece of literature. It
+     makes one long for a new and perfect world, in which all minds
+     shall be pure and all passion fine and clean."--_The Statesman._
+
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+
+PUBLISHED BY
+
+A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58475 ***