248 HISTOEICAL EACES 



are contrasted with those of disease, it is apparent that they are 

 relatively insignificant. Elimination from disease, though irre- 

 gular, is always in progress within this period ; there are lengthy 

 epochs when there is little or no loss through war. Again, the 

 great epidemics are far more destructive of life than the great 

 wars ; Hecker, for instance, after a lengthy examination of the 

 various accounts, came to the conclusion that about a quarter of 

 the inhabitants of Europe perished during the Black Death.^ 



The nature which warfare assumed in this period is obviously 

 connected with the rise and consolidation of large states. Warfare 

 becomes a matter of policy ; it is no longer a cause of a regular 

 degree of elimination. There is among the races under review in 

 this chapter every degree between the kind of warfare typical of 

 the races previously reviewed and that typical of this period. 

 The nomadic races of Asia have at least until recent times main- 

 tained a form of regular warfare. Vambery states that there is 

 ' inveterate and irreconcilable enmity ' between two tribes of 

 Turkomans. 2 We are told that among such a primitive people 

 as the Nagas the tribes were formerly in a state of constant 

 hostility.^ Among these people also head-hunting was formerly 

 common and the victims sometimes included women.'* ' One indi- 

 vidual showed Mr. Carnegie his apron which recorded the deaths of 

 twenty-five individuals — men, women and cliildren — slain by his 

 own hand.' ^ Generally speaking, however, we have in this period 

 to think of warfare as typically of a different nature to that which 

 we have noticed before, but whether it on the whole accounts 

 directly for a higher degree of ehmination, it is not possible to say. 



The features of warfare which are of importance here are its 

 relatively slight effect in producing elimination, its irregular 

 action, and its important consequences in bringing about disease 

 and famine. With disease we have already dealt. Famine appears 

 here for the first time among the more important factors of 

 elimination, and its appearance is obviously connected with the 

 higher organization of society which, if broken down, as by 

 warfare, may give rise to famine.^ Social organization may be 



' Hecker, loc. cit., p. 30. The proportion of the population which perished is 

 often said to have been greater. Rogers (loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 223) puts it at one- 

 third of the population of England. - Vambery, Travels, p. 313. 

 * Hodson, Naga Tribes, p. 113. * Crooke, Northern l7idia, p. 41. ^ Ibid., 

 p. 47. * Thus in irrigated countries, if the system of irrigation is allowed 

 to fall into decay or if it is damaged. directly or indirectly by war, famine may 

 result. See Cresswell, Man, vol. xv, p. 68. 



