188 PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURAL RACES 



seldom even that number.' ^ Tautain, who ^collected some 

 figures for these islands, found the birth-rate to be very low.^ In 

 the Kingsmill Islands ' a woman seldom has more than two 

 children, and never more than three '.^ Dr. Seligman is under 

 the impression that ' childless marriages are not very uncommon ' 

 among the Koitu and Motu of New Guinea ; * and Stone says of 

 the latter that ' as a rule their progeny is not numerous '.^ 

 Krieger remarks upon the small families in New Guinea, attribut- 

 ing the fact to abortion and infanticide.^ In the Bismarck 

 Archipelago ' families as a rule are not very large. ... A large 

 number of the women have no children.' ^ Three is the average 

 number in New Ireland : a familv of four or five is considered 

 large.^ In New Caledonia there are seldom more than three in 

 a family.^ Fijian women are not prolific.^" I-^ing Roth, survey- 

 ing the literature of Sarawak, notes that the small size of the 

 families has often been remarked upon, and quotes the statements 

 of Houghton and Whitehead.^^ According to the former, ' in 

 general there are more than two children in a family ; on an 

 average three or four, very seldom only one child '. 'The families 

 of the natives ', says Whitehead, ' are very small ; in one or two 

 instances I have known them to contain eight or more by one 

 mother, but many women have only three or four, most one or 

 two children ; and it is by no means uncommon to find them 

 childless.' Brooke estimated ' four or five births to every married 

 woman '.^^ Wallace was impressed by the same fact, and took 

 some pains to investigate the matter. ' From inquiries at almost 

 every Dyak tribe I visited, I ascertained that the women had 

 rarely more than three or four children, and an old chief assured 

 me that he had never known a woman have more than seven.' ^^ 

 So, too, according to Bock, ' a Dyak family seldom consists of 

 more than three or four children 'M Hagen estimates four children 

 born per fertile married woman as the average among the Orang 

 Kubu of Sumatra ; ^^ while Marsden, writing in the eighteenth 



1 Melville, Narrative, p. 213. - Tautain, U Anthropologie, vol. ix, p. 418. 



^ Jenkins, Voyage, p. 404. * Seligman, Melanesians, p. 80. ^ Stone, 



New Guinea, p. 93. ^ Krieger, loc. cit., pp. 165, 293, and 390. Neuhaus 



confirms this (Deutsch Neu-Guinea, vol. i, p. 150). ' Brown, Melanesians, 



p. 37. « Pfeil, loc. cit., p. 32. See also Stephan and Graebner, Neu- 



Mecklenherg, p. 16. ' Lortsch, loc. cit., p. 107; De Vaux, 'Les Canaques', 



Rev. d'Eth, vol. ii, p. 330. i" Blyth, Glasgoiv Medical Journal, vol. xxviii, 



p. 178. " Ling Roth, Sarawak, vol. i, p. 106. ^^ Brooke, Sarawak, 



vol. ii, p. 335. " Wallace, Malay Archipelego, vol. i, p. 141. '* Bock, 



Head Hunters, p. 211. '^ Hagen, Unter den Papuas, ■p. 27. 



