Chap. XX.] INTERFERING CAUSES. 347 



Although savages are now extremely licentious, and 

 although communal marriages may formerly have largely 

 prevailed, yet many tribes practise some form of mar- 

 riage, but of a far more lax nature than with civilized 

 nations. Polygamy, as just stated, is almost universally 

 followed by the leading men in every tribe. Nevertheless, 

 there are tribes, standing almost at the bottom of the 

 scale, which are strictly monogamous. This is the case 

 with the Veddahs of Ceylon : they have a saying, accord- 

 ing to Sir J. Lubbock,' " that deatli alone can separate hus- 

 band and wife." An intelligent Kandyan chief, of course 

 a polygamist, " was perfectly scandalized at the utter 

 barbarism of living with only one wife, and never parting 

 until separated by death." It was, he said, "just like the 

 Wanderoo monkeys." Whether savages who now enter 

 into some form of marriage, either polygamous or monog- 

 amous, have retained this habit from primeval times, or 

 whether they have returned to some form of marriage, 

 after passing through a stage of promiscuous intercourse, 

 I will not pretend to conjecture. 



Infanticide. — This practice is now very common 

 throughout the world, and there is reason to believe that 

 it prevailed much more extensively during former times." 

 Barbarians find it difficult to support themselves and their 

 children, and it is a simple plan to kill their infants. In 

 South America some tribes, as Azara states, formerly de- 

 stroyed so many infants of both sexes, that they were on 

 the point of extinction. In the Polynesian Islands wom- 

 en have been known to kill from four or five to even ten 

 of their children ; and Ellis could not find a single woman 

 who had not killed at least one. Wherever infanticide 



9 ' Prehistoric Times,' 1869, p. 424. 



'" Mr. McLennan, 'Primitive Marriage,' 1865. See especially on ex- 

 ogamy and infanticide, pp. 130, 138, 165. 



