MANIFESTED IN HUMAN SOCIETY 185 



the birthrate unless sexual union were confined wholly 

 to one season, assuming that there has been no decline 

 of natural fertility. Westermarck quotes Mr. Johnston 

 and Mr. Powers as regards the wild Indians of California 

 and Mr. Oldfield in regard to the Watch-an-dies of Western 

 Australia as testifying that these primitive races have 

 an annual rutting season and only one time for copulation 

 during the year. Yet " the he-goat and the ass in southern 

 countries, for instance, rut throughout the whole year." 1 

 From this it would appear that the evolution of the lower 

 races of mankind has advanced less far in respect to the 

 sexual instinct than that of the he-goat and the ass. 



Probably this so-called pairing season is nothing but 

 a love feast. How is it possible to prove that sexual 

 intercourse is confined to one part of the year ? Any 

 assertions made by the members of the tribes in question 

 would be very liable to be misunderstood, and if under- 

 stood correctly would be quite unreliable. To ascertain 

 the fact with any degree of certainty would require obser- 

 vations of unheard-of delicacy observations carried out 

 with a nicety and thoroughness which would have brought 

 a warm red blush to the cheek of Peeping Tom himself. 

 Moreover, if copulation took place only at one season, 

 all the births would take place at one season, but no 

 such result is mentioned. 



Dr. Westermarck also thinks that natural selection 

 " can account for the periodicity of the sexual instinct 

 in such a rude race as the Western Australians, among 

 whom the mortality of children is so enormous that the 

 greater number of them do not survive even the first 

 month after birth, and who inhabit a land pre-eminently 

 unproductive of animals and vegetables fitted to sustain 

 human life, a land where ' during the summer season 

 1 The History of Human Marriage, Westermarck. 



