188 PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURAL RACES 



seldom even that number/ 1 Tautain, who collected some 

 figures for these islands, found the birth-rate to be very low. 2 In 

 the Kingsmill Islands ' a woman seldom has more than two 

 children, and never more than three *. 3 Dr. Seligman is under 

 the impression that ' childless marriages are not very uncommon ' 

 among the Koitu and Motu of New Guinea ; 4 and Stone says of 

 the latter that * as a rule their progeny is not numerous '. 5 

 Krieger remarks upon the small families in New Guinea, attribut- 

 ing the fact to abortion and infanticide. 6 In the Bismarck 

 Archipelago ' families as a rule are not very large. ... A large 

 number of the women have no children.' 7 Three is the average 

 number in New Ireland ; a family of four or five is considered 

 large. 8 In New Caledonia there are seldom more than three in 

 a family. 9 Fijian women are not prolific. 10 Ling Roth, survey- 

 ing the literature of Sarawak, notes that the small size of the 

 families has often been remarked upon, and quotes the statements 

 of Houghton and Whitehead. 11 According to the former, * in 

 general there are more than two children in a family ; on an 

 average three or four, very seldom only one child '. ' The families 

 of the natives ', says Whitehead, ' are very small ; in one or two 

 instances I have known them to contain eight or more by one 

 mother, but many women have only three or four, most one or 

 two children ; and it is by no means uncommon to find them 

 childless.' Brooke estimated ' four or five births to every married 

 woman *. 12 Wallace was impressed by the same fact, and took 

 some pains to investigate the matter. ' From inquiries at almost 

 every Dyak tribe I visited, I ascertained that the women had 

 rarely more than three or four children, and an old chief assured 

 me that he had never known a woman have more than seven.' 13 

 So, too, according to Bock, * a Dyak family seldom consists of 

 more than three or four children \ 14 Hagen estimates four children 

 born per fertile married woman as the average among the Orang 

 Kubu of Sumatra ; 15 while Marsden, writing in the eighteenth 



1 Melville, Narrative, p. 213. 2 Tautain, V Anthropologie, vol. ix, p. 418. 



3 Jenkins, Voyage, p. 404. * Seligman, Melanesians, p. 80. 5 Stone, 



New Guinea, p. 93. 6 Krieger, loc. cit., pp. 165, 293, and 390. Neuhaus 



confirms this (Deutsch Neu*Guinea, vol. i, p. 150). 7 Brown, Melanesians, 



p. 37. 8 Pfeil, loc. cit., p. 32. See also Stephan and Graebner, Neu- 



Mecklenberg, p. 16. Lortsch, loc. cit., p. 107; De Vaux, 'Les Canaques', 



Rev. d'Eth, vol. ii, p. 330. 10 Blyth, Glasgow Medical Journal, vol. xxviii, 



p. 178. u Ling Roth, Sarawak, vol. i, p. 106. " Brooke, Sarawak, 



vol. ii, p. 335. Wallace, Malay Archipelego, vol. i, p. 141. " Bock, 



Head Hunters, p. 211. 15 Hagen, Unter den Papuas, p. 27. 



