PEIMITIVE AGKICULTUEAL EACES 165 



early intercourse are given of some North-American tribes — as, 

 for instance, of the Hurons and the Ilhnois by Charlevoix. ^ The 

 same is also commonly reported of the Brazilian tribes in such 

 a manner as to leave httle doubt that intercourse before puberty 

 is common among them.^ 



3. Generally speaking, throughout America lactation lasted two 

 years or more.^ The suckling period indeed sometimes extended 

 over several years ; thus among the Sioux it might be continued 

 until the child was five years old ;* of the Lengua Indians of 

 the Paraguayan Chaco, Hawtrey says that ' it is customary to 

 suckle children till five or six years of age ' ; ^ Bancroft reports 

 that a child might be suckled until eight years old among the 

 Chichmics.^ Two years would appear to be about the minimum ; 

 in Mexico ^ and Guiana ^ it was three years or more. D'Orbigny 

 gives three years,^ and Forbes one or more, often two, for the 

 Aymara Indians. ^^^ In Mexico suckling was said to last three or 

 four years. ^^ 



4. With regard to postponement of marriage the facts are very 

 similar to those in respect to the races of the first group. As an 

 almost universal rule girls are married soon after puberty, if not 

 before. There is no postponement of marriage of a nature to 

 affect fertility in any noticeable manner. There is at times 

 a certain postponement of marriage among the male part of the 

 population, and occasionally some evidence of lifelong celibacy. 

 This, however, has no bearing upon fertility ; it is of interest 

 in another connexion, and we shall on that account return to it 

 later. 



5. As noticed in the last chapter there are among nearly all 

 primitive races a number of occasions upon which sexual inter- 

 course is prohibited. Alone among these prohibitions, that 

 against intercourse for some time after the birth of a child is of 

 importance as a factor bearing upon fertility. We shall find that 



1 Charlevoix, loc. cit., vol. v, pp. 5 and 38. For the Creeks see Schoolcraft, 

 loc. cit., vol. v, p. 272. ^ Poppig, Reiie in Chile, vol. ii, p. 128; von Martius, 



Ethnographie Amerikas, vol. i, p. 112; Azara, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 104. ^ Hand- 



book of American Indians, vol. i, p. 265. Heriot (loc. cit., p. 344) mentions six to 

 seven years as not uncommon. Schoolcraft (loc. cit., vol. v, p. 655) gives eighteen 

 months to two years for the Oregon Indians. * Keating, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 417. 



^ Hawtrey, J. A. I., vol. xxi, p. 295. Grubb gives three to four years (An Unknown 

 People, p. 142). « Bancroft, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 633. ' Ibid., vol. ii, p. 281. 



" im Thum, Savages of Guiana, p. 219; Joest, Int. Arch. Eth., vol. v, p. 94. 

 * D'Orbigny, U Homme Americain, vol. i, p. 47. " Forbes, Journ. Eth. Soc., 



vol. ii (new series), p. 224. " Joyce, loc. cit., p. 162. 



