166 PEIMITIVB AGEICULTUEAL EACES 



in Africa this prohibition becomes of very great importance. 

 The evidence as to the existence of this prohibition in America is 

 somewhat puzzhng. In the last chapter two instances were 

 given in which intercourse during lactation was prohibited in 

 two hunting races. Both these instances are reported by authors 

 who made their observations many years ago when the customs 

 of the American Indians had been less modified by contact with 

 white men than is the case with most of the observations upon 

 which we have to rely. We also find that two other observers, 

 who wrote more than a hundred years ago, record the existence 

 of this custom. It is not clear to what tribes these remarks refer 

 ■ — whether to hunting peoples or to agricultural peoples, or to 

 both. Weld says : ' They suckle the few children they have for 

 several years, during which time, at least among many of the 

 tribes, they avoid all connexion with their husbands.' ^ Heriot 

 speaks of ' the length of time employed by the women in rearing 

 their children, whom they nourish for three or four years, during 

 which period they cohabit not with their husbands '.^ In addition 

 to this evidence we have the following records of the existence 

 of this practice for various agricultural races. Two eighteenth- 

 century writers — Le Beau, speaking of the Iroquois,^ and Charle- 

 voix of the Illinois ^— state that intercourse was prohibited during 

 lactation. Speaking of the 'Crow tribe. Holder mentions that 

 abstention from intercourse during lactation was observed.^ In 

 Mexico, according to Bancroft, the suckling period lasted for 

 three years or longer, and during this time there was often no 

 intercourse.^ D'Orbigny says of the Moxos and Chiquitos that 

 the mother ' invariably suckles her children for three j'^ears or 

 more, during which time she has no relations whatever with her 

 husband '.' There do not seem to be any denials of the existence 

 of this practice except in the following instance ; in most in- 

 dividual cases there is no mention of the practice. The exception 

 referred to is in the case of the Fuegians. Hyades and Deniker, 

 referring to the statement of D'Orbigny mentioned above, remark 

 that sexual relations are resumed within two months of the birth 

 of a child among the Fuegians.^ It is not possible to arrive at 



' Weld, loc. cit., p. 373. ^ Heriot, loc. cit., p. 339. * Le Beau, 



Aventures, ou Voyage curieux et nouveau, vol. ii, p. 200. * Charlevoix, loc. 



cit., vol. vi, p. 5. Ashe {Travels, p. 276) says that the Shawnees abstain for nine 

 weeks after birth. ^ Holder, Am. Journ. Obstet., vol. xxv, p. 44. * Ban- 



croft, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 281. ' D'Orbigny, U Homme Amiricain, vol. i, p. 47. 



* Hyades and Deniker, loc. cit., vol. vii, p. 195. 



