254 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



wife received sometimes a cast-off wife from one who 

 had more than he wanted. 1 Where children are much 

 desired the commonest reason for casting off a wife is 

 likely to be her barrenness. Whether this be the 

 reason in a particular case or not, a widow or a cast- 

 off wife would often be virtually beyond the age of 

 child-bearing, though menstruation might not have 

 ceased. In such cases, of course, no offspring would 

 result from the union. 



On the other hand, among many peoples sexual 

 intercourse begins long before maturity. Premature 

 intercourse produces children no more than the inter- 

 course of women who are past bearing. But if 

 practised by immature girls with adult men, it often 

 results in such injury to the sexual organs as may 

 seriously affect the reproductive powers after maturity 

 is reached. In the last chapter incidental mention 

 has been made of copulation before puberty among 

 the Bahuana of the Congo basin, the Maoris, and the 

 populations of the Marquesas Islands and the islands 

 of Ambon and Uliase in the East Indies. 2 From the 

 list of other cases of premature sexual relations, it 

 would seem necessary for our purpose expressly to 

 exclude the custom of infant marriage which has 

 grown up among the Hindus under a complexity of 

 influences not yet wholly understood. In Vedic times 

 marriage was the marriage of adults. But in the law- 

 books, the composition of later ages, a father is en- 

 joined to marry his daughter before she attain 

 puberty ; and he is held guilty of a grave sin if he 

 omit to perform this duty. Whatever the causes of 

 the change it took place in a civilised not in a savage 

 1 Supra, p. 228. * Supra, pp. 113, 172, 176, 138. 



