684 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



says: " It is a mistake to imagine that a girl is sold by her 

 father in the same manner, and with the same authority, 

 with which he would dispose of a cow.'' Among the 

 degraded Bushmen of S. Africa, *^when a girl has grown 

 up to womanhood without having been betrothed, which, 

 however, does not often happen, her lover must gain her 

 approbation as well as that of the parents/'* Mr. Winwood 

 Reade made inquiries for me with respect to the negroes of 

 Western Africa, and he informs me that 'Hhe women, at 

 least among the more intelligent Pagan tribes, have no dif- 

 ficulty in getting the husbands whom they may desire, 

 although it is considered unwomanly to ask a man to marry 

 them. They are quite capable of falling in love and of 

 forming tender, passionate and faithful attachments." 

 Additional cases could be given. 



We thus see that with savages the women are not in 

 quite so abject a state in relation to marriage as has often 

 been supposed. They can tempt the men whom they 

 prefer, and can sometimes reject those whom they dislike, 

 either before or after marriage. Preference on the part of 

 women, steadily acting in any one direction, would ulti- 

 mately affect the character of the tribe; for the women 

 would generally choose not merely the handsomest men, 

 according to their standard of taste, but those who were at 

 the same time best able to defend and support them. Such 

 well-endowed pairs would commonly rear a larger number 

 of oft'spring than the less favored. The same result would 

 obviously follow in a still more marked manner if there 

 was selection on both sides; that is, if the more attractive, 

 and, at the same time, more powerful, men were to prefer, 

 and were preferred by, the more attractive women. And 

 this double form of selection seems actually to have 



* Azara " Voyages, " etc., torn, ii, p. 23. Dobrizboffer, "An Ac- 

 count of tbe Abipones," vol. ii, 1822, p. 207. Capt. Musters, in 

 " Proc. R. Geograpb. Soc," vol. xv, p. 47. Williams on tbe Fiji 

 Islanders, as quoted by Lubbock, "Origin of Civilization," 1870. p. 

 79. On tbe Fuegians, King and Fitzroy, " Voyages of tbe 'Advent- 

 ure' and ' Beagle,* " vol. ii, 1839, p. 182. On tbe Kalmucks, quoted by 

 M'Lennan, " Primitive Marriage," 1865, p. 32. On tbe Malays, Lub- 

 bock, ibid, p. 76. Tbe Kev. J. Sbooter, "On tbe Kafirs of Natal," 

 1857, pp. 52-60. Mr. D. I^eslie, "Kafir Cbaracter and Customs," 

 1871, p. 4. On tbe Busbmen, Burcbell, "Travels in S. Africa," vol. 

 ii, 1824, p. 59. On tbe Koraks by McKennan, as quoted by Mr. 

 Wake, in " Antbropologia," Oct., 1873, p. 75. 



