MARRIAGE 



297 



female obstetric toad, and this monogamous union is main- 

 tained until the strings of eggs which the male carries about 

 twisted round his hind legs are gone, and the larvae are hatched. 



Wundt's further statement that the majority of higher birds 

 and mammals live in monogamy only holds good of birds, for 

 most mammals prefer polygamy, the male not being satisfied 

 with wooing a single female ; afterwards he may not concern 

 himself with the offspring, or he may act as the leader and 

 protector of a herd of females and young. The majority of 

 apes up to the baboons have never risen above this social 

 condition, and it is only the anthropoids (except perhaps the 

 gorilla) who pair monogamously. 



Polyandry is not, at least as a temporary condition, by any 

 means so unusual as Wundt supposes, for many female animals 

 whose rutting season is protracted incline to the approaches 

 not merely of one, but of many males, if she succeeds in evading 

 the attentions of her first choice. Polyandry has been de- 

 monstrated in insects (the Elateridae) and in fishes (carp and 

 minnows). 



The probable marital observances of our palaeolithic an- 

 cestors may be deduced with some degree of certainty from 

 those now extant among the primitive savages of to-day. 



It may be broadly assumed that the primitive conditions of 

 marriage and property of the modern savage correspond with 

 those of primeval man. 



Darwin l regards as one of the chief causes which prevent 

 or check the action of sexual selection the so-called com- 

 munal marriages or promiscuous intercourse. The authorities 

 whom he quotes as vouching for the existence of present-day 

 tribes who practise this custom are Lord Avebury, McLennan, 

 Morgan and Bachofen. All these observers believe that 

 communal marriage was the original and universal form through- 

 out the world. Even Kohler 2 thinks it not at all improbable 

 that before the existence of any form of marriage tie in pre- 

 historic times a condition of general promiscuous intercourse 

 prevailed. The customs described by trustworthy travellers as 

 surviving to the present day amongst red-skins, Eskimos, and 

 Australian blacks probably resemble the old-time conditions. 



1 Darwin, Descent of Man, ii., p. 390. - Kohler, loc. cit., p. 164. 



