MARITAL JEALOUSY 245 



community. The limits of subsistence may be narrow, 

 but they are indefinite. Where the principal food is 

 the flesh of wild animals numbers are often essential 

 to success in hunting, as they are also in defence 

 against human and other foes. Nor in the search for 

 vegetable food and the smaller animals are numbers to 

 be despised. This is the work wherein children begin 

 first to help and wherein with their sharp eyes and 

 agile movements they form a valuable adjunct to the 

 women. They thus soon become of importance for 

 their own sakes and not merely as future hunters and 

 warriors. When the basis of subsistence shifts and 

 provision for future supplies is laid up by the keeping 

 of cattle or the sowing of grain, then the value of a 

 child increases. The boys watch the cattle or the 

 cornfields ; the girls render material assistance to their 

 mothers in the various household duties incident to 

 their condition. After a few years the boys accom- 

 pany their elders to market or to war, they support 

 and assist them in their bargains and their quarrels 

 their hunting and their husbandry, while the girls 

 often bring wealth in the bride-prices paid for them. 

 Thus both boys and girls are a source alike of con- 

 sideration in the community and of material benefit. 



Moreover, where a tribe is exposed to hardships, 

 where food is scarce, skies are inclement and foes are 

 numerous, where long and painful journeys must be 

 undertaken, and labour is severe, the women are 

 usually not very prolific. Some races too are by 

 nature comparatively infertile. In such cases a birth 

 may be an event welcomed for its comparative rarity. 

 The instinct of self-preservation is a social no less than 

 an individual instinct. We have seen how it is said 



