Chap. XX. Man — Mode of Sexual Selection. 597 



selection lias probably gone on in a greater or less degree to the 

 present day. Other characters proper to the males of the lower 

 animals, such as bright colours and various ornaments, have been 

 acquired by the more attractive males having been preferred by 

 the females. There are, however, exceptional cases in which the 

 males are the selectors, instead of having been the selected. We 

 recognise such cases by the females being more highly orna- 

 mented than the males, — their ornamental characters having 

 been transmitted exclusively or chiefly to their female offspring. 

 One such case has been described in the order to which man 

 belongs, that of the Ehesus monkey. 



Man is more powerful in body and mind than woman, and in 

 the savage state he keeps her in a far more abject state of bondage, 

 than does the male of any other animal; therefore it is not sur- 

 prising that he should have gained the power of selection. 

 Women are everywhere conscious of the value of their own beauty ; 

 and when they have the means, they take more delight in deco- 

 rating themselves with all sorts of ornaments than do men. They 

 borrow the plumes of male birds, with which nature has decked 

 this sex in order to charm the females. As women have long been 

 selected for beauty, it is not surprising that some of their succes- 

 sive variations should have been transmitted exclusively to the 

 same sex ; consequently that they should have transmitted 

 beauty in a somewhat higher degree to their female than to their 

 male offspring, and thus have become more beautiful, according 

 to general opinion, than ■ men. Women however, certainly 

 transmit most of their characters, including some beauty, to 

 their offspring of both sexes ; so that the continued preference by 

 the men of each race for the more attractive women, according to 

 their standard of taste, will have tended to modify in the same 

 manner all the individuals of both sexes belonging to the race. 



With respect to the other form of sexual selection (which with 

 the lower animals is much the more common), namely, when the 

 females are the selecters, and accept only those males which 

 excite or charm them most, we have reason to believe that it 

 formerly acted on our progenitors. Man in all probability owes 

 his beard, and perhaps some other characters, to inheritance 

 from an ancient progenitor who thus gained his ornaments. But 

 this form of selection may have, occasionally acted during later 

 times ; for in utterly barbarous tribes the women have more 

 power in choosing, rejecting, and tempting their lovers, or of 

 afterwards changing their husbands, than might have been 

 expected. As this is a point of some importance, I will give in 

 detail such evidence as I have been able to collect, 



Hearne describes how a woman in one of the tribes of Arctic 



