450 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



leave behind one who should administer to welfare after death : mo- 

 tives which, strengthening as societies passed through their early- 

 stages, gradually gave a certain authority to the claims of male chil- 

 dren, thouofh not to those of females. And thus we again see how 

 intimate is the connection between militancy of the men and degrada- 

 tion of the women. 



Here we are introduced to the question, " What relation exists be- 

 tween the status of children and the form of social organization ? " To 

 this the reply is akin to one given in the last chapter; namely, that 

 mitigation of the treatment of children accompanies transition from 

 the militant type to the industrial type. 



Those lowest social states in which offsj)ring are now idolized, now 

 killed, now sold, as the dominant feeling prompts, are everywhere the 

 states in which hostilities with surrounding tribes are chronic. This 

 absolute dependence of progeny on pai'ental will is shown whether 

 the militancy is that of archaic groups, or that of groups higher in 

 structure. In tlie latter as in the former, there exists that life and 

 death power over children which is the negation of all rights and 

 claims. On comparing children's status in the rudest militant tribes 

 with their status in militant tribes which are patriarchal and com- 

 pounded of the patriarchal, all we can say is, that in these last the 

 still-surviving theory becomes qualified in practice ; and that qualifi- 

 cation of it increases as industrialism grows. 



The Feejeeans, intensely despotic in government, and ferocious in 

 war, furnish an instance of extreme abjectness in the position of chil- 

 dren. Infanticide, especially of females, reaches nearer two-thirds 

 than one-half; they " destroy their infants from mere whim, expediency, 

 anger, or indolence ; " and, according to Erskine, " children have been 

 offered by the people of their own tribe to propitiate a powerful chief," 

 not for slaves but for food. A sanguinary warrior race of Mexico the 

 Chechemecas yield another example of excessive parental power : 

 sons " cannot marry without the consent of parents ; if a young man 

 violates this law .... the penalty is death." By this instance we 

 are reminded of the domestic condition among the ancient Mexicans 

 (largely composed of conquering cannibal Chechemecas), whose social 

 organization was highly militant in type, and of whom Clavigero says, 

 " Their children were bred to stand so much in awe of their parents, 

 that even when grown up and married, they hardly durst speak befoi'e 

 them." In ancient Central America family rule was similar ; and in 

 ancient Peru it was the law that " sons should obey and serve their 

 fathers until they reached the age of twenty-five." 



If we now turn to the few cases of uncivilized and semi-civilized 

 societies that are wholly industrial, or predominantly industrial, we 

 find children, as wo found women, occupying much higher positions. 

 Among the peaceful Bodo and Dhimals, " infanticide is utterly un- 



