A Remarkable Example of Decline. 



that period of all domestic duties beyond nursing 

 the baby, a system which placed the mother in 

 the best possible position to rear her child. 

 Monogamy prevents this, and the injurious 

 nature of the change is emphasised by the fact 

 that the Fijian has no possible substitute for 

 mother's milk.' 



" That the women have now to rely, when in 

 travail, on the good offices of some old woman, 

 instead of being, as formerly, well looked after 

 by the other female members of the household, 

 who took as much interest in the unborn babe 

 as the mother herself. 



" That in polygamous times the best females 

 of the race bore children to the best males, and 

 the progeny was consequently robust ; but that 

 many of such women are now the wives of an 

 inferior class of men, who, under a polygamous 

 regime, would probably never have obtained 

 wives, and would thus have been prevented from 

 procreating their inferior species. 



" That in polygamous times the wives, from a 

 spirit of emulation, tried to rear their children, 

 and succeeded in doing so, and that it was not 

 not at all uncommon for a man to rear ten or a 

 dozen children. 



" That the people who practised polygamy, 

 the chiefs, w^ere better able to maintain their 

 wives in food and comforts than the men of 

 lower ranks, who form the majority of mono- 

 gamous husbands. 



"That on the abolition of polygamy, the 

 young girls were set free from the repression 

 formerly exercised over them, and converted 

 65 



