184 PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURAL RACES 



this factor, child mortality is still high, and is due to ignorance 

 and want of care on the part of the mother. Both Harris ^ and 

 Talbot,^ speaking of West Africa, remark upon the high rate of 

 infant mortahty, and connect it with want of care. ' As soon as 

 an infant is able to walk, it is permitted to run about with great 

 freedom,' says Mungo Park.^ According to Du Chaillu, ' they 

 know nothing scarcely of the care of children, and lose a great 

 proportion through mistake in treatment in infancy '.* In the 

 Congo region, ' that a great portion of the children die — once they 

 are born — is evident from the Baptist Mission records, extending 

 over more than twenty years. This is chiefly due to unsuitable, 

 indigestable, or insufficient food. Grenfell has some notes on the 

 preposterous attempts to feed infants a few weeks old with 

 manioc paste.' ^ Among the Mangbetu many children die, ' as 

 they are left to look after themselves at about two or three years 

 of age '.^ Weeks ^ and van Overbergh ^ also record high infant 

 mortality for other tribes of this region. It is interesting to observe 

 that Delhaise, speaking of the Warega — an isolated and primitive 

 people — says that disease is rare among the children, though the 

 death-rate is high.^ According to Gutmann, many children die 

 in infancy among the Wadschagga, owing to the very unsuit- 

 able methods of feeding. A mother takes food from her mouth 

 and presses it into that of her child.^° Similarly a high infant 

 death-rate and want of care is recorded of the Zulus,^^ Basutos,^^ 

 and Kaffir ^^ races generally. 



Oceania 



25. Intercourse before the age of puberty is not very common 

 among the races of Oceania. In New Zealand, however, it was 

 frequent. ' It often happened that a girl would have intercourse 

 with a youth before she arrived at puberty. At times marriage 

 took place and was consummated at this early age.'^* This state 

 of things is confirmed by several other authors.^^ Dumas says it 



1 Harris, loc. cit., p. 68. * Talbot, loc. cit., p. 12. ^ Mungo Park, loc. 



cit., p. 403. * Du Chaillu, loc. cit., p. 163. ^ Johnston, George Grenfell 



and the Congo, vol. ii, p. 672. ^ Van Overbergh, loc. cit.. No. 4, p. 297. 



' Weeks, J. A. I., vol. xxxix, p. 418. * Van Overbergh, loc. cit., No. 3, p. 244. 



' Delhaise, loc. cit., p. 157. ^^ Gutmann, loc. cit., p. 3. " Leslie, Zuhis 



and Amatongas, p. 198. ^- Casalis, Basvtos, p. 193. " Holden, loc. 



cit., p. 172. " Best, Man, vol. xiv, p. 32. " Dieffenbach, Travels, 



vol. ii, p. 16 ; Angas, Australia and New Zealand, vol. i, p. 314 ; Tuke, Edinburgh 

 Medical Journal, vol. ix, part 1, p. 224 ; Tregear, J. A. I., vol. xix, p. 101. 



