278 THE REGULATION OF NUMBERS 



to Egypt is infertile and have little knowledge of skilled methods. 

 Stepping ashore for the first time in a modem port, bewildered 

 as was inevitable with his surroundings, the Somali, nevertheless, 

 showed himself a man. He carried a certain pride with him. 

 The fellaheen grovelled to him ; the Somali obviously despised 

 him. The Somali is a man who has not suffered from a tradition 

 of oppression as has the Egyptian fellah ; it is easy to understand 

 how among the Somalis conditions would arise and would be 

 maintained whereby excess of numbers would not reduce them 

 to a bare level of subsistence, whereas among the fellaheen numbers 

 probably tend to be regulated by the abiHty of the land to keep 

 men alive in spite of the possibility of the return per head being 

 far higher in Egypt than in Somaliland. 



6. Passing to the third sub-group we come for the first time 

 upon conditions substantially different to those with which we 

 have hitherto met. All those factors, which in previous groups 

 we have noticed as having a bearing upon fertihty, have either 

 diminished in importance or more often have vanished altogether. 

 Lactation was not prolonged, there was no pre-puberty marriage, 

 and there is no evidence of restraint from intercourse between 

 married persons being imposed as a social custom. Though the 

 knowledge of contraceptive practices may have been present there 

 is no evidence of their extensive use. It has also to be remembered 

 that fecundity, if anything, was increasing. On the other hand 

 disease was the cause of a very high death-rate, higher almost 

 certainly than in any previous age. 



The most striking difference, however, between this and former 

 sub-groups is the absence of abortion and infanticide. Further, 

 we find what we have never found before, or rather never in such 

 a degree as to be of any importance, postponement of marriage 

 and celibacy ; in other words, for the older methods there has 

 been substituted a new method whereby fertility may be reduced. 

 We have now to inquire how the reahzation of the desirability of 

 some limitation brought about the most important factor — 

 postponement of marriage — and how effective it was. With 

 regard to religious celibacy, which was of less importance and 

 ceased to be of any importance in England during the sixteenth 

 century, we may merely notice its existence. Under conditions, 

 such as we shall describe, and which rendered marriage difficult, 

 monastic institutions were obviously a refuge for many for whom 



