178 PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURAL RACES 



have more than six children, according to Mondiere : ^ in Liberia 

 famihes are said to be small.^ Among the Bangala ' it is rare 

 for a woman to have more than two or three children ' ; ^ another 

 observer, speaking of the same people, remarks that ' there was 

 much sterihty '.^ Cureau, speaking generally of the tribes of the 

 Congo Basin, says that famihes are small. ^ Kuku women bear 

 three children on the average.^ The number of children is given 

 as three to five for the Baholoholo,' three to four for the Ba- 

 mbala,^ and the same for the Warega ; ® among the Mangbetu 

 families are not large,^" while ' on an average a Bayaka w^oman 

 bears three children ; families of more than four are rare '.^^ 

 Turning to the races of the eastern side of the Continent we find 

 that the average Swaheli family is given as consisting of two 

 children. ^2 Figures have been collected concerning forty-nine 

 families of the Akikuyn, from which it appears that the average 

 number of children is between three and five.^^ The Bakene 

 women ' are, as a rule, strong and healthy and have children, 

 though few of them ever have so many as six, three being the 

 average number for each wife '.i* Tw^o or three — at the most 

 five — children are born to the Wanjamuesi mother. ^^ Among the 

 tribes south of Lake Nyassa ' the average number of children in 

 a family is three to five '.^^ The Makalaka ' race is not prolific, 

 and the w'omen . . . seldom bear more than an average of three 

 children '.^'^ Lastly, the Hottentots have ' seldom more than two 

 or three children ', and ' many of the women are barren \^^ while 

 similarly in Madagascar the natives ' do not, as a rule, have 

 large families, and a considerable portion is childless '.^^ 



19. Abortion is practised by many races in various parts of 

 Africa. Among the Tenda people married women rarely practise 

 abortion, unmarried women more frequently ; ^o Tremearne men- 

 tions it in speaking of some of the Nigerian tribes. ^^ It appears 



1 Mondiere, JRev. d'Anth., vol. iv, p. 75. 2 Buttikoffer, loc. cit., p. 82. 



» Overbergh and Jonghe, loc. cit., No. 1, p. 201. * Weeks, J. A. I., vol. 



xxxix, p. 420. 6 Cureau, loc. cit., p. 138. « Plas, loc. cit., p. 208. 



' Schmitz, Coll. lion. Eth., No. 9, p. 595. « Torday and Joyce, J. A. I., 



vol. XXXV, p. 51. » Delhaise, loc. cit., p. 157. i" Van Overbergh, loc. 



cit.. No. 4, p. 297. " Torday and Joyce, J. A. I., vol. xxxvi, p. 51. 



" Velten, loc. cit., p. 28. " Routledge, Prehistoric People, p. 136. Owing 



to the fact that the families are incomplete, there is some uncertainty about these 

 figures. " Roscoe, Man, vol. ix, p. 118. See also same author's Northern 



Bantu, p. 151. " Reichard, loc. cit., p. 255. i^ Stannus, loc. cit., p. 310. 



>' Elton, Journal, p. 6. " Barrow, Travels, vol. i, p. 97. See also Theal, 



Yellow- and Dark-Skinned People, p. 86. " Little, Madagascar, p. 64. 



»' Delacour, loc. cit., p. 45. " Tremearne, J. A. I., vol. xlii, p. 171. 



