210 A i\ T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. Book II. 



It is from this fupcrabundance of males in our fpecies that I ac- 

 count for a very extraordinary cuflom which obtains in the coun- 

 try of Thibet, where the women have more than one hufband. If 

 the women of that country were Amazons and governed the men, 

 it might be accounted for in that way ; but, as that is not the cafe, 

 it does not appear to me that we can give any other reafon for it, 

 except that the men being much fupernumerary, more, I beheve^, 

 than in Europe, at the fame time it being fit that every man flioukl 

 have tlie gratification of that natural defire without encroaching 

 upon the rights of others, it was thought proper that more than one 

 man fhould have the ufe of the fame woman» 



In the territory of Callicut, in the Eaft Indies, M. Buffon informs 

 us, that, among the nobles, or military order there, called Naires, the 

 women have the privilege of having feveral hufbands, fome of them 

 to the number of ten -, but the lower rank of women are allowed 

 only one hufband ; and the men, even of noble race, but one 

 wife *. This, perhaps, is for a reafon different from that which I 

 have affigned for the practice in Thibet ; for, as it is confined to one 

 race of men, it would feem that they give this privilege to the wo- 

 men, of choofing hufbands to themfelves, and as many as they 

 pleafe, becaufe they think that the excellency of the race depends 

 more upon the females than upon the males ; and therefore they 

 take care that the race fhall be continued by them. Perhaps in this 

 they are not miftaken ; and, accordingly, Buffon fays, that the no- 

 bles of Callicut are men of very fine perfons. — Further, I believe, 

 though Buflbn has not faid it, that the noble race there is only con- 

 tinued by the females, which we know is the cafe with refpedl to the- 

 royal races and the fucceflion of kingdoms in feveral barbarous na- 

 tions ; and, no doubt, there is a greater certainty of the race in the 

 female than in the male line. 



In 



* Buffon, Vol. iil. p. 413^ 



