Are We a Declining Race ? 



prevalence of erotomania would prevent the 

 return to their former innocent life. By innocent 

 life, I do not mean cannibalism and club-law, 

 but innocence from a moral aspect. 



My aim in dwelling on the troubles of these 

 people is to point an object lesson from which 

 we may derive some inkling as to the cause of 

 our own. 



We are so much in the habit of assuming that 

 savage races are devoid of all reason that we are 

 surprised to find them in possession of laws of 

 any description ; much more so to find them with 

 regulations superior to our own, as some of them 

 certainly are. Take, for instance, the cessation 

 of intercourse during the periods of gestation and 

 nursing. A most exemplary rule. A rule which 

 would make a vast difference in our infant 

 mortality if adopted by us. 



Similar rules to this were in force in different 

 parts of Africa, according to Mr. Winwood 

 Reade and others. " The child is introduced 

 into the world without medical aid, and is 

 cordially welcomed. . . . The mother is 

 treated with great respect, and is exempt from 

 all labour while she continues to suckle her child, 

 which she continues to do while her milk 

 lasts. . . . During this time, and almost 

 from the moment that impregnation becomes 

 apparent, the mother no longer cohabits with her 

 husband. Otherwise, say the natives, the child 

 would be born sickly or crippled (in which case 

 it would be killed), and the milk would be 

 spoiled." 



I know of no civilised place where the com- 



74 



