138 HUNTING AND FISHING EACES 



a case from Smith Sound in which a child was suckled up to seven 

 years of age.^ Heriot, speaking generally of the Indian tribes of 

 the North, mentions * the length of time employed by the women 

 in nursing their children, whom they nourish for three or four 

 years ',2 and Long gives four, five, and even six years.^ For the 

 Ingaliks Dall mentions three years,* for the Eastern Tinneh 

 Eoss three or four,^ for the Thlinkeet Krause four years,^ and 

 Lord for the Indians of Puget Sound two or three years.' 

 Speaking of the Ahts of Vancouver Island, Sproat says he has 

 seen ' a boy of four following his mother for her milk ',^ and 

 of the tribes of California Schoolcraft that ' children are sometimes 

 not weaned until five years of age '.^ Similarly the Nootkas 

 suckle their children until they are three or four years old,^" and 

 Chinooks their children ' until three, four, or five years old '.^^ The 

 facts are similar for the inland Salish and Shushwap^^ as well as 

 for the tribes" of Oregon and Washington ^^ and the Chepewayans.^* 

 So also in South America the Puelches^^ and the Abipones^^ 

 suckle their children for three years, and the same is reported 

 of the Fuegians ^' and of the Andaman Islanders who ' never 

 wean their babies so long as they are able to suckle them '.^^ 

 Among the Ghihaks suckhng is continued up to the age of three 

 years. ^^ 



4. Initiation ceremonies at the period of maturity are of common 

 occurrence among primitive races. These ceremonies are some- 

 times accompanied by mutilation of the genital organs ; but there 

 is apparently no reason to beheve that tliis mutilation has any 

 effect upon fecundity, except possibly among the Australians,^*^ 

 It is unnecessary to describe the exact nature of the operations 

 performed upon Australian boys and girls. The operations are 

 severe and it seems very possible at first sight that they might 

 affect the reproductive power. The opinion of authorities is 

 divided on this point. Spencer and Gillen think that the opera- 



1 Bessels, Arch, fur Anth., vol. viii, p. 113. == Heriot, Travels, p. 339. See 



also Weld, Travels, p. 373. » J. Long, Voyages, p. 60. * Dall, Alaska, 



p. 196. 5 Ross, loc. cit., p. 305. « Krause, Die Thinklit-Indianer, 



p. 216. See also Bancroft, Native Races, vol. i, p. 111. ' Lord, Naturalist 



in Vancouver, vol. ii, p. 233. " Sproat, loc. cit., p. 94. » Schoolcraft, 



Indian Tribes, vol. iii, p. 212. '" Bancroft, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 197. " Ibid., 



p. 242. >2 Ibid. 13 Gibbs, loc. cit., p. 209. " Long, loc. cit., 



p. 60. " Guinnard, Three Years' Slavery amojig the Patagonians, p. 146. 



'* Dobrizhoffer, Abipones, vol. ii, p. 195. i' Hyades and Deniker, loc. cit., 



vol. vii, p. 195. >« Man, J. A. I., vol. xii, p. 81. '» Deniker, Eev. 



d'Eth., vol. ii, p. 303. 20 j^or races of North-east Africa see King, Journal 



Anthropological Society of Bombay, vol. ii, 1890. 



