Chap. XX. Man — Checks to Sexual Selection. 587 



who attended the temple of Venus Erycina at SanGiuliano in 

 Sicily, were selected for their beauty out of the whole of Greece 

 they were not vestal virgins, and Quatrefages, 3 who states the 

 foregoing fact, says that the women of San-Giuliano are now 

 famous as the most beautiful in the island, and are sought by 

 artists as models. But it is obvious that the evidence in all the 

 above cases is doubtful. 



The following case, though relating to savages, is well worth 

 giving from its curiosity. Mr. Winwood Eeade informs me that 

 the Jollofs, a tribe of negroes on the west coast of Africa, " are 

 " remarkable for their uniformly fine appearance." A friend of 

 his asked one of these men, " How is it that every one whom I 

 " meet is so fine-looking, not only your men, but your women ?" 

 The Jollof answered, " It is very easily explained : it has always 

 " been our custom to pick out our worse-looking slaves and to 

 " sell them." It need hardly be added that with all savages, 

 female slaves serve as concubines. That this negro should have 

 attributed, whether rightly or wrongly, the fine appearance of 

 his tribe to the long-continued elimination of the ugly women is 

 not so surprising as it may at first appear ; for I have elsewhere 

 shewn 4 that negroes fully appreciate the importance of selection 

 in the breeding of their domestic animals, and I could give from 

 Mr. Eeade additional evidence on this head. 



The Causes which prevent or check the Action of Sexual Selection 

 with Savages. — The chief causes are, first, so-called communal 

 marriages or promiscuous intercourse ; secondly, the consequences 

 of female infanticide ; thirdly, early betrothals ; and lastly, the 

 low estimation in which women are held, as mere slaves. These 

 four points must be considered in some detail. 



It is obvious that as long as the pairing of man, or of any 

 other animal, is left to mere chance, with no choice exerted by 

 either sex, there can be no sexual selection ; and no efTect will be 

 produced on the offspring by certain individuals having had an 

 advantage over others in their courtship. Now it is asserted 

 that there exist at the present day tribes which practise what 

 Sir. J. Lubbock by courtesy calls communal marriages ; that is, 

 all the men and women in the tribe are husbands and wives to 

 one another. The licentiousness of many savages is no doubt 

 astonishing, but it seems to me that more evidence is requisite, 

 before we fully admit that their intercourse is in any case pro- 

 miscuous. Nevertheless all those who have most closely studied 



3 ' Anthropologic,' ' Revue des Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. 

 Cours Scientifiques,' Oct. 18G8, p. p. 207. 



721. 3 Sir J. Lubbock, 'The Origin o! 



4 'The Variation of Animals and Civilisation,' 1870, chap, iii esped 



