HUNTING AND FISHING EACES 141 



/universally among these races the women are married at or soon 

 after puberty and remain married throughout the mature period. 



6. Among almost every uncivihzed race there are numerous 

 •^occasions upon which sexual intercourse is tabooed. Common 

 V instances are those of taboo during the preparations for a hunting 



party or a mihtary expedition. It is not worth while to enumerate 

 these occasions, because with one exception it does not seem that 

 they can, even when considered together, have any marked effect 

 upon fertility .1 The exception referred to is the prohibition upon 

 intercourse that follows the birth of a child. This taboo is of very 

 great importance among certain races that we shall consider in the 

 eighth chapter. As regards hunting and fishing races there is no 

 record of its existence in Tasmania, Australia, among the Bush- 

 men, the Eskimos, or any other people of importance with the 

 exception of the American Indians. The evidence in this case is 

 scanty ; there are certain difficulties and the matter is better left 

 for discussion in the next chapter when we come to deal with the 

 agricultural races of this part of the world. It is enough to say 

 here that certain early observers, speaking generally of the American 

 Indians, refer to this custom, and that two early observers speaking 

 specifically of two hunting tribes — one in North and one in South 

 America — record this custom. Cabe^a de Vaca says that the 

 Yguazas abstain from intercourse for two years after childbirth,^ 

 and Dobrizhoffer records of the Abipones that ' the mothers suckle 

 their children for three years, during which time they have no 

 conjugal intercourse with their husbands '.^ 



7. At this point we may refer to the remarkable fullness and 

 unanimity of the eyidence with regard to the number of children 

 observed among these races. The evidence is to the effect that 

 the number of children is always small. ^^^Bonwick says that 

 ' families were never large with the Tasmanians V and that ' the 

 native woman as a rule had very few children, and fewer still 

 were . . . permitted to live ' ; ^' he attributes this to the fact that 

 women did not begin to bear children until after several years of 



' It is rare that the prohibition for such reasons extends over so long a period 

 as a year. This is the period of abstinence sometimes enjoined upon the Thlinkeet 

 Indians (Swanton, 26th A. R. B. E., p. 449). On this subject see Crawley, Mystic 

 Rose, pp. 187, 215, and 342 ; Hubert and Mauss, Histoire des Religions; Frazer, 

 Golden Bowjh, vol. i, p. 29 ; and Westermarck, loo. cit., pp. 150 ff. 



2 Cabe^a de Vaca, Narrative, p. 62. ^ I)obrizhoffer, loc. cit., vol. ii, ]). 97. 



* This has, of course, often been remarked upon. See, for instance, Darwin, 

 Descent of Man, vol. i, p. 132. ^ Bonwick, loc. cit., p. 79. * Ibid., 



p. 85. 



