The Evolution of Morality. 249 



are spared oftener than boys, as Dobritzlioffer re 

 lates of the Abiponians. And this conception of 

 women as property naturally leads, were there 

 not other motors, to polygyny. Thus Clavigero 

 relates that among the Mexicans the possession 

 of a large number of wives was regarded as a sign 

 and proof of superiority. And there is similar 

 testimony regarding many savage tribes, in which 

 a direct relation may be observed between the 

 means and standing of the husband and the 

 number of his wives. In Ashantee the king is 

 allowed by law three thousand three hundred and 

 thirty-three. The king of Yoruba boasted that 

 his wives, of whom some composed his body 

 guard, would, linked hand in hand, reach clean 

 across his kingdom. And polygyny, though 

 necessarily on a smaller scale, is practised in all 

 parts of the earth from the frigid to the torrid 

 zone, over connected continents, and on solitary 

 ocean isles. And as it prevails over vast areas of 

 space, so it spans ages of time, appearing with 

 the first dawn of history and flourishing to this 

 day among a large part of the human family. 



To these deviations from our own marriage 

 practices must be added examples of incest. 

 These occur, naturally, in endogamous tribes. The 

 Yeddahs of Ceylon had a custom, not yet ex- 



