PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 271 



children of seven or eight years old, and the formal 

 marriage is celebrated as soon as the girl has lost her 

 virginity. 1 In Sierra Leone girls are betrothed early, 

 often before birth ; and on the betrothal of an infant 

 girl she is at once given over to the bridegroom. 2 



Among several of the American peoples little regard 

 is paid to puberty in their sexual relations. Child- 

 marriages are common among the Eskimo between the 

 lower Yukon and the Kuskokwim. The boy goes to 

 live at his father-in-law's house and " transfers filial 

 duty of every kind " from his own father to his wife's 

 father. In such cases the girl is frequently not over 

 four or five years of age. 3 Among the Indians dwelling 

 to the south-west of the Ungava district " girls are 

 often taken as wives before they attain puberty, and 

 for this reason they seldom have large families," two 

 three or four children being the usual number. The 

 Nenenot girls " arrive at puberty at the age of fourteen 

 or fifteen, and are taken as wives at even an earlier 

 age. So early are they taken in marriage that before 

 they are thirty years of age they often appear as though 

 they were fifty." 4 Among the Northern Maiduof the 

 foot-hill region girls were often given in marriage when 

 only six or eight years of age. 5 We have already 

 studied the Zuni customs. Among them "marriage 

 usually occurs at very tender years, girls frequently 



1 Post, Afr. Jur. i. 366, citing Caillie, i. 243, 244. 



2 Ibid. 366, 369, citing Winterbottom, 200; and Matthews, 124. 



3 Nelson, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xviii. 291. It is not quite clear from 

 the author's expressions whether intercourse is permitted below 

 puberty. It is not at all events distinctly disclaimed, and we are 

 probably right in assuming it. 



4 Turner, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 183, 271. 



6 Dixon, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. xvii. 240. 



