244 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



which he is quite careless. Nor is the marriage-day 

 the terminus ad quern of his carelessness. In a con- 

 siderable proportion of the cases cited the husband, if 

 he ponder the subject at all, must be aware that 

 some of the children begotten after marriage have not 

 been begotten by him, though they may be the result 

 of other sexual relations by his wife sanctioned by 

 tribal usage. Even adulterine issue, defined in the 

 terms of the lower culture as the result of relations not 

 so sanctioned, is frequently received by the husband as 

 his own. In the communities in which the practices we 

 have passed in review are found children are as a rule 

 but little burden ; on the contrary they may be a source of 

 power and wealth. A husband therefore does not too 

 curiously inquire into the origin of a child who will 

 raise his status and add to his influence in society. 

 Nay, even if he knows that he is not the father, by 

 recognising it as his child he acquires the benefit of 

 its birth as if he had been himself the agent in begetting 

 it. It may be said that this will not apply to cases of 

 more or less nomadic populations, like the Bushmen 

 and the Australian blackfellows who wander over a 

 comparatively barren country. To them children 

 instead of adding to their power and wealth are a 

 weakness and an incumbrance. There is a measure 

 of truth here. The burden and the danger of too 

 many children is relieved by infanticide, especially of 

 girls. Yet it is easy to overstate the objection. To 

 these poverty-stricken populations children are their 

 greatest asset. Burden though they may be in their 

 earliest years they quickly learn to help themselves, 

 and as they grow up they take their full share in 

 providing for the wants and assuring the safety of the 



