348 SEXUAL SELECTION : MAN. [Part IL 



prevails the struggle for existence will be in so far less 

 severe, and all the members of the tribe will have an al- 

 most equally good chance of rearing their few surviving 

 children. In most cases a larger number of female than 

 of male infants are destroyed, for it is obvious that the 

 latter are of most value to the tribe, as they will when 

 grown up aid in defending it, and can support themselves. 

 But the trouble experienced by the women in rearing 

 children, their consequent loss of beauty, the higher esti- 

 mation set on them and their happier fate, when few in 

 number, are assigned by the women themselves, and by 

 various observers, as additional motives for infanticide. 

 In Australia, where female infanticide is still common, Sir 

 G. Grey estimated the proportion of native women to 

 men as one to three ; but others say as two to three. In 

 a village on the eastern frontier of India, Colonel Maccul- 

 loch found not a single female child." 



When, owing to female infanticide, the women of a 

 tribe are few in number, the habit of capturing wives 

 from neighboring tribes would naturally arise. Sir J. 

 Lubbock, however, as we have seen, attributes the prac- 

 tice, in chief part, to the former existence of communal 

 marriage, and to the men having consequently captured 

 women from other tribes to hold as their sole property. 

 Additional causes might be assigned, such as the com- 

 munities being very small, in which case, marriageable 

 women would often be deficient. That the habit of cap- 

 ture was most extensively practised during former times, 

 even by the ancestors of civilized nations, is clearly shown 

 by the preservation of many curious customs and cere- 

 monies, of which Mr. McLennan has given a most inter- 



" Dr. Garland ('Ueber das Aussterben dcr Naturvolker,' 1868) has 

 collected much information on infanticide, see especially s. 27, 51, 54. 

 Azara ('Voyages,' etc., torn. ii. pp. 94, 116) enters in detail on the mo- 

 tives. See also McLennan (ibid. p. 139) for cases in India. 



