' SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS. 641 



for any woman to whom they are attached; and, of course, 

 the strongest party always carries off the prize. A weak man, 

 unless he be a good hunter and well beloved, is seldom per- 

 mitted to keep a wife that a stronger man thinks worth his 

 notice. This custom prevails throughout all the tribes, 

 and causes a great spirit of emulation among their youth, 

 who are upon all occasions, from their childhood, trying 

 their strength and skill in wrestling." With the Guanas 

 of South America, Azara states that the men rarely marry 

 till twenty years old or more, as before that age they cannot 

 conquer their rivals. 



Other similar facts could be given; but even if we had 

 no evidence on this head we might feel almost sure, from 

 the analogy of the higher Quadrumana,* that the law of 

 battle had prevailed with man during the early stages of 

 his development. The occasional appearance at the pres- 

 ent day of canine teeth which project above the others, 

 with traces of a diastema or open space for the reception of 

 the opposite canines, is in all probability a case of reversion to 

 a former state, when the progenitors of man were provided 

 with these weapons, like so many existing male Quadrumana. 

 It was remarked in a former chapter that as man gradually 

 became erect, and continually used his hands and arms 

 for fighting with sticks and stones, as well as for the other 

 purposes of life, he would have used his jaws and teeth 

 .less and less. The jaws, together with their muscles, would 

 then have been reduced through disuse, as would the teeth 

 through the not well understood principles of correlation 

 and economy of growth; for we everywhere see that parts, 

 which are no longer of service, are reduced in size. By such 

 steps the original inequality between the jaws and teeth 

 in the two sexes of mankind would ultimately have been 

 obliterated. The case is almost parallel with that of many 

 male ruminants, in which the canine teeth have been 

 reduced to mere rudiments, or have disappeared, apparently, 

 in consequence of the development of horns. As the prodig- 

 ious difference between the skulls of the two sexes in the 

 orang and gorilla stands in close relation with the develop- 

 ment of the immense canine teeth in the males, we may 

 infer that the reduction of the jaws and teeth in the early 



*0n the fighting of the male gorillas, see Dr. Savage, in "Boston 

 Journal of Nat. Hist.," vol v., 1847, p. 423. On Presbytis entellus, 

 see the " Indian Field," 1859, p. 140. 



