

The Evolution of Morality. 217 



all. And, indeed, actual evidence of the forma 

 tion of rudimentary societies, by an ^observer so 

 competent as Sir A. Lyall, shows that if the per 

 plexed jungle of primitive society springs out of 

 many roots, &quot; the hero is the tap-root from which, 

 in a great degree, all the rest were nourished and 

 grown &quot; (&quot;Asiatic Studies,&quot; p. 168). Nor do we 

 find in the known habits and customs of savages 

 any evidence of the very unheroic practice of com 

 munal marriage. McLennan does not attempt to 

 establish the point, which is simply postulated as 

 a background for the unfolding of his theory. 

 In fact, however lax the marital arrangements 

 among savages, some kind of permanent union, 

 some appropriation of individual women by in 

 dividual men, is always to be found or inferred. 

 If the Esquimaux lend their wives, they must 

 have wives of their own whom others cannot ap 

 propriate without their consent. Even the Aleu 

 tian Islanders and Fuegians have fixed marital 

 relations, and it would be difficult to find more 

 degraded tribes than these. 



Promiscuity in McLennan s system is followed 

 by infanticide of females, which would naturally 

 evolve polyandry and, if carried far enough, wife- 

 stealing too. But in considering this practice as 

 universally prevalent, McLennan manifestly goes 



