THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 447 



II. 



That brutes, however ferocious, treat their offspring tenderly, is a 

 familiar fact ; and that tenderness to offspring is shown by the most 

 brutal of mankind, is a fact qiiite congruous with it. An obvious ex- 

 planation of this seeming anomaly exists. As we saw that the treat- 

 ment of women by men cannot pass a certain degree of harshness 

 without causing extinction of the tribe, so, here, we may see that the 

 tribe must disappear unless the love of progeny is strong. Hence we 

 need not be surprised when Mouat tells us that the Andaman-Islanders 

 " show tlielr children the utmost tenderness and affection ;" or when 

 we read in Snow's account of the Fuegians that both sexes are much 

 attached to their offspring ; or when Sturt describes Australian fathers 

 and mothers as behaving to their little ones with much fondness. 

 Affection intense enough to prompt great self-sacrifice is, indeed, 

 especially requisite under the conditions of savage life, which render 

 the rearing of young difficult; and maintenance of svich affection is 

 insured by the dying out of families in which it is deficient. 



But this strong parental love is, like the parental love of animals, 

 very irregularly displayed. As among brutes the philoprogenitive 

 instinct is occasionally suppressed by the desire to kill, and even to 

 devour, their young ones, so, among primitive men, this instinct is 

 now and again overridden by impulses temporarily excited. Thus, 

 though attaclied to their offspring, Australian mothers, when in dan- 

 ger, will sometimes desert them ; and, if we may believe Angas, men 

 have been known to bait their hooks with the flesh of boys they have 

 killed. Thus, notwithstanding their marked parental affection, Fuegi- 

 ans sell their children for slaves; thus, among the Chonos Indians, a 

 father, though doting on his boy, will kill him in a fit of anger for an 

 accidental offense. Evervwhere among the lower races we meet with 

 like incongruities. Falkner, while describing the paternal feelings of 

 Patagonians as very strong, says they often pawn and sell their wives 

 and little ones to the Spaniards for brandy. Speaking of the children 

 of the Sound Indians, Bancroft says they " sell or gamble them away." 

 According to Simpson, the Pi-Edes " barter their children to the Utes 

 proper, for a few trinkets or bits of clothing." And of the Macusi, 

 Schomburgk writes, " The price of a child is the same as the Indian 

 asks for his dog." 



This seemingly-heartless conduct to children often arises from the 



tion of man and woman is more favorable to the latter than among the Lapps." After 

 giving evidence from personal observation, he asks the reason, saying : " Is it because 

 the men are not warriors ? . . . They have no soldiers, fight no battles, either with out- 

 side foreigners, or between the various tribes and families among themselves. ... In 

 spite of their wretched huts, their dirty faces, their primitive clothing, their ignorance 

 of literature, art, and science, they rank above us in the highest element of true civiliza- 

 tion, the moral element; and all the military nations of the world may stand uncovered 

 before them " (pp. 162, 163). 



