254 HISTORICAL RACES 



the Kirghiz marry before the beginning of menstruation.^ Among 

 the Annamites ^ and the Todas ^ intercourse sometimes occurs 

 before puberty. Macdonell's figures for Rome, already referred to, 

 show that marriage must sometimes have taken place before 

 puberty. 



7. The ancient Egyptians suckled their children for two or 

 three years.* The suckling period is prolonged in Arabia.^ In 

 the Koran mothers are recommended to suckle for two years.^ 

 Among Asiatic races lactation is usually extended for a con- 

 siderable length of time. The Japanese sometimes do not wean 

 their children until the fourth year.'^ The poorer classes in Persia 

 suckle until the third year.^ In Upper Siam ' infants are generally 

 suckled three years '.^ In Turkey lactation is also prolonged. ^^ 

 Generally speaking, the evidence is to the effect that the suckling 

 period is always prolonged — the average being perhaps somewhere 

 about two to three years. 



8. In sub-group 1 many examples are found of restraint from 

 sexual intercourse being imposed upon married persons at certain 

 seasons. Examples from Egypt are given by Miiller.^^ According 

 to the Laws of Manu separation from the wife was obligatory at 

 certain periods — for instance, at new and full moon and on certain 

 days of the month.^^ Similar conditions existed inPersia.^^ Such 

 restrictions, however, are not of much importance. Of prolonged 

 abstention from intercourse there is little evidence. In China, 

 according to Gray, ' a husband is not expected to cohabit with 

 his wife after she has conceived, nor after the child is born, during 

 the whole period that it is being nourished at the mother's breast. 

 Any violation of this rule is supposed not only to cause the child 

 to become sickly but to provoke the displeasure of the ancestors 

 and to bring misfortune upon all members of the family. Wealthy 

 Chinese are generally very careful in the practice of such absten- 

 tion.' 1* It is quite clear, however, from what we know of Chinese 

 fertility that this custom is not widely practised among the people 

 as a whole. Smith speaks of ' the objection of the Arabs to inter- 



1 Wassilief, Zentralblatt filr Anthropologie, vol. x. ^ Mondiere, Mem. Soc. 



Anth., vol. ii, p. 465. ^ Rivers, Todas, p. 503. * Lenormant, Histoire 



ancienne, vol. iii, p. 142. ^ Doughty, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 237 ; Burckhardt, 



Notes on the. Bedouins, p. 96. ' Koran, ch. ii. ' Faulds, Nine Years, 



p. 285. See also Wamick, Archiv filr Gynaekologie, vol. x, p. 574. For China 

 see Matignon, Dix Ans, p. 318. ' Polak, loc. cit., p. 216. * Bock, 



Temples and Elephants, p. 260. i" Rigler, Die Tiirkei, vol. i, p. 212. 



'I Miiller, Das Sexuclle Leben, p. 6, i^ Ibid., p. 29. » Ibid., p. 37. 



** Gray, China, vol. i, p. 185. 



