SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS, 675 



other men. Or he may not have been a social animal, and 

 yet have lived with several wives, like the gorilla: for all 

 the natives ** agree that but one adult male is seen in a 

 band; when the young male grows up a contest takes place 

 for mastery, and the strongest, by killing and driving out 

 the others, establishes himself as the head of the com- 

 munity."* The younger males, being thus expelled and 

 wandering about, would, when at last successful in finding 

 a partner, prevent too close interbreeding within the limits 

 of the same family. 



Although savages are now extremely licentious, and, 

 although communal marriages may formerly have largely 

 prevailed, yet many tribes practice some form of marriage, 

 but of a far more lax nature than that of civilized nations. 

 Polygamy, as just stated, is almost universally followed by 

 the leading men in every tribe. Nevertheless there are tribes, 

 standing almost at the bottom of the scale, which are 

 strictly monogamous. This is the case with the Veddahs 

 of Ceylon; they have a saying, according to Sir J. Lub- 

 bock,! " that death alone can separate husband and wife.'' 

 An intelligent Kandyan chief, of course a polygamist, 

 " was perfectly scandalized at the utter barbarism of living 

 with only one wife, and never parting until separated by 

 death." *' It was," he said, *^ just like the Wanderoo mon- 

 keys." Whether savages who now enter into some form of 

 marriage, either polygamous or monogamous, have re- 

 tained this habit from primeval times, or whether they 

 have returned to some form of marriage, after passing 

 through a stage of promiscuous intercourse, I will not 

 pretend to conjecture. 



Infanticide. This practice is now very common through- 

 out the world, and there is reason to believe' that it pre- 

 vailed much more extensively during former times. | Bar- 

 barians find it difficult to support themselves and their 

 children, and it is a simple plan to kill their infants. In 

 South America some tribes, according to Azara, formerly 



*Dr. Savage, in "Boston Journal of Nat. Hist.," vol. v, 1845-47, 

 p. 423. 



t " Prehistoric Times," 1869, p. 424. 



I Mr. M'Lennan, "Primitive Marriage," 1865. See especially on 

 exogamy and infanticide, pp. 130, 138, 165. 



