Chap. XYIl. 



EVIL FROM INTERBREEDING. 



103 



Mr. Tylor ^^ has sliown that with widely different races in 

 the most distant quarters of the world, marriages between 

 relations — even between distant relations — have been strictly 

 prohibited. There are, however, many exceptions to the 

 rule, which are fully given by Mr. Huth.^^ It is a curious 

 problem how these prohibitions arose during early and 

 barbarous times. Mr. Tyler is inclined to attribute them to 

 the evil effects of consanguineous marriages having been ob- 

 served ; and he ingeniously attempts to explain some apparent, 

 anomalies in the prohibition not extending equally to the 

 relations on the male and female side. He admits, however, 

 that other causes, such as the extension of friendly alliances, 

 may have come into play. Mr. W. Adam, on the other hand, 

 concludes that related marriages are prohibited and viewed 

 with repugnance, from the confusion which would thus arise 

 in the descent of property, and from other still more recondite 

 reasons. But I cannot accept these views, seeing that incest 

 is held in abhorrence by savages such as those of Australia 

 and South America,^^ who have no property to bequeath, or 

 fine moral feelings to confuse, and who are not likely to 

 reflect on distant evils to their progeny. According to jMr. 

 Huth the feeling is the indirect result of exogamy, inasmuch 

 as when this practice ceased in any tribe and it became 

 endogamous, so that marriages were strictly confined to the 

 same tribe, it is not unlikely that a vestige of the former 

 practice would still be retained, so that closely-related 

 marriages would be prohibited. With respect to exogamy 

 itself Mr. MacLennan believes that it arose from a scarcity 

 of women, owing to female infanticide, aided perhaps by 

 other causes. 



It has been clearly shown b}^ Mr. Huth that there is no 



26 See his interesting work on the 

 ' Early History of Man,' 1865, chap. x. 



-' 'The Marriage of Near Kin,' 

 1875. The evidence given by INlr. 

 Huth would, I think, have been even 

 more valuable than it is on this and 

 some other points, if he had referred 

 solely to the works of men who had 

 long resided in each country referred 

 to, and who showed that they possessed 



ju.dgment and caution. See also Mr. 

 \V. Adam, ' On Consanguinity in Mar- 

 riaoe ' in the ' Fortnightly Review,' 

 1865, p. 710. Also Hofacker, ' Ueber 

 die Eigenschaften,' &c., 18J8. 



2^ Sir G. Grey's ' Journal of Expe- 

 ditions into Australia,' vol. ii. ji. 24r;3 ; 

 and Dobrizhotfer, ' On the Ablpones oi 

 South America.' 



