Chap. XX. INTERFERING CAUSES. 365 



women from other tribes to hold as their sole property. 

 Additional causes might be assigned, such as the com- 

 munities being very small, in which case, marriageable 

 w^omen would often be deficient. That the habit of 

 capture was most extensively practised during former 

 times, even by the ancestors of civilised nations, is 

 clearly shewn by the preservation of many curious 

 customs and ceremonies, of which Mr. M'Lennan has 

 given a most interesting account. In our own mar- 

 riages the '' best man " seems originally to have been 

 the chief abettor of the bridegroom in the act of cap- 

 ture. Now as long as men habitually procured their 

 wives through violence and craft, it is not probable that 

 they would have selected the more attractive women ; 

 they would have been too glad to have seized on any 

 woman. But as soon as the practice of procuring wives 

 from a distinct tribe was effec^ted through barter, as now 

 occurs in many places, tlie more attractive women would 

 generally have been purchased. The incessant crossing, 

 however, between tribe and tribe, which necessarily 

 follows from any form of this habit would have tended 

 to keep all the people inhabiting the same country 

 nearly uniform in character ; and this would have 

 greatly interfered with the power of sexual selection in 

 differentiating the tribes. 



The scarcity of women, consequent on female infanti- 

 cide, leads, also, to another practice, namely polyandry, 

 W'hich is still common in several parts of the world, and 

 which formerly, as Mr. M'Lennam believes, prevailed 

 almost universally ; but this latter conclusion is doubted 

 by Mr. Morgan and Sir J. Lubbock.^^ Whenever two 



12 . Primitive Maniage,' p. 208 ; Sir J, Lubbock, ' Origin of Civilisa- 

 tion,' p. loo. See also Mr. Morgan, loc. cit., on former prevalence of 

 polyandry. 



