THE " SEXUAL SEASON " OF MAMMALS. 35 



some extent in the sixteenth century in Russia (Kowalewsky, 

 1890 and 1891), and in some parts of India at a much more 

 recent date (Rousselet, 1876), while such customs as " gwneyd 

 Bragod" (Owen, 1886) and possibly our own "bean feasts" 

 may not improbably be the modern representatives of these 

 ancient customs in our own country. 



Again, it is worthy of note that the erotic feasts of more 

 civilised peoples are not greatly dissimilar to the sexual feasts 

 and dances of the savage peoples of Australia, Polynesia, 

 West Africa, South America, New Britain, and West Asia 

 (Ploss, 1887). Apart from the fact that many of them surely 

 have some reference to phallic worship, as in the case of the 

 maypole, the origin of these feasts — shrouded as they are in 

 the mists of ancient customs now but little understood, and 

 of laws long since forgotten, complicated as they are by 

 customs, religions, and laws of a later growth — is not de- 

 finitely known. 



It is indeed a matter of the greatest difficulty to trace, 

 justly, the true relation and likeness of any one of these 

 customs to another, however similar they apparently may be. 

 At the same time the universality of such customs is very 

 remarkable, and may, I think with some justice, prepare one 

 to believe that in prehistoric times man was impelled to 

 indulge, if not wholly, at least more freely, in sexual inter- 

 course at certain seasons rather than at other times of the 

 year. 



Hill (1888) attempts to trace the apparent survival of a 

 human pairing season, by the customs of the Hindus and the 

 proportions of births in each month of the year; while 

 Westermarck (1891) records customs and statistics which 

 certainly point even more strongly in the same direction. 

 Ploss (1887) also gives many valuable statistics for Russia, 

 Germany, Italy, and France; and Haycraft (1880) does the 

 same for Scotland. It is remarkable that the statistics 

 brought forward by these authors in all cases show a con- 

 siderable rise in the birth rate at certain seasons. In Scot- 

 land, Haycraft oints out that from 1866 to 1875 a marked 



