2 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is a very grave the very gravest consideration. The dead are 

 dependent upon their male descendants for offerings, without which 

 their shadowy existence would be to the last degree wretched ; and 

 therefore, as every man knows he also must die, he is anxious during 

 life to see a good provision made for his future wants in other words, 

 he is eager to have sons to succeed him. But neither is this motive to 

 be found among the lower savages, for with them descent, and there- 

 fore inheritance, is through females. Hence we find in some such 

 tribes the practice of " male infanticide " that is to say, the practice 

 of killing male children rather than female. Thus the Rev. R. H. 

 Codrington, M. A., of the Church of England Melanesian mission, in- 

 formed me, with regard to the people of Mota (Banks Island), that 

 infanticide was common among them, and that " male children were 

 killed rather than female, because of the family passing by the female 

 side" 



We have seen that the first of the two postulates on which Mr. 

 McLennan's theory depends is not to be readily granted. "We have 

 now to examine the second, which is 



That exogamous tribes existed " under circumstances in which men 

 could get wives only by capturing them." 



A tribe to satisfy these conditions must be exogamous qua tribe 

 that is to say, marriage must be forbidden everywhere within its 

 limits. No man of the ti'ibe must be able to take any one of its 

 women to wife ; for, if the tribe be so constituted that its men can 

 get their wives anywhere within its boundaries, it is manifest that it 

 is not a tribe such as Mr. McLennan's theory requires. 



His list of what he calls " exogamous tribes " is contained in Chap- 

 ter V. of " Studies in Ancient History," and of all those tribes there is 

 not one which satisfies his own conditions. Without exception, they 

 are all divided into exogamous intermarrying clans ; and therefore 

 they can get wives without capturing them from other tribes. 



Each one of them is an endogamous tribe or community, made up 

 of exogamous intermarrying clans that is, it marries within its own 

 boundaries, but it prohibits marriage within any one of its clans. 

 Once more we have to note that a confusion arises from Mr. Mc- 

 Lennan's want of precision in using the term "tribe," and his own 

 terms " endogamy " and " exogamy," all of which are equally mis- 

 leading, unless the area to which they are applied be clearly defined. 

 But, whatever be the meaning which he gives to tribe, the cases 

 cited by him in his fifth chapter are of no avail. For it is evident 

 that in these cases the word " tribe " must mean one of two things : 

 either 



1. The whole nation or community ; or 



2. One of the exogamous clans or the exogamous clans severally 

 into which the nation is divided. 



