?T. II.] POLYGAMY. POLYANDKY. 297 



3groes of East Sudan, who not merely excuse theft, murder, 

 id treachery, but consider these actions as praiseworthy in 

 man. They first learned under the Turkish rule to distinguish 

 murder frpm justifiable homicide in war. Lying and deceit- 

 fulness are considered as marks of mental superiority, and those 

 who suffer death on the gallows are buried with the same 

 honours as the rich merchant or the Sheik." 1 It is, however, 

 a remarkable fact, showing that there is a natural moral feeling 

 among even the rudest nations, that, e. g., the Australians in 

 the region of Port Essington, when they are detected as thieves, 

 offer no resistance f and that in the Sandwich Islands the 

 discovered thief returns the stolen property without reluctance. 3 

 We must now turn to the social relations of uncultivated 

 peoples. In marriage and family life we find two characteristic 

 features the enslaved state of woman as the weaker being, and 

 polygamy. The male is independent, as he has to defend and 

 support his family. The female is despised and considered as 

 merchandise. How little chastity is esteemed is evinced by 

 the language of the Bosjesmen not distinguishing girl from 

 wife. 4 In the north of Peru a girl is more courted if she has 

 had many lovers before marriage, 5 which is also the case in 

 Wydah. 6 Sexual excesses committed by girls before marriage 

 are of little importance; continence is only required of married 

 women. It has even been asserted that chastity among Negroes 

 only means that pregnant and menstruating women should ab- 

 stain from illicit intercourse. 7 Of the absence of romantic love 

 there can under such circumstances be no question, although 

 it may not be entirely wanting among some uncultivated nations. 

 Generally speaking there prevails, in consequence of early gra- 

 tification of the sexual passion, an unaffected and passionless re- 

 lation between the sexes, which must not, as Delegorgue has 

 suggested, be attributed to a greater natural gentleness of un- 



1 Brehm, " Reise-skizzen aus Nordost-Afrika," i, 162, 175, 1855. 



2 Jukes, " Narrative of the surveying voy., of H.M.S. Fly/' i, p. 354, 1847. 

 Wilson, " Missionsreise in das stille Meer," Mag. v. Eeiseb., xxi, p. 291. 



4 Liechtenstein, i, p. 192. 



5 Ulloa, " Voy. de 1'Am. merid.," i, pp. 343, 1752. 



6 Des Marchais, "Voyage en Guinee," Amsterdam, 1731. 



7 Smith, "Trade and Travels in the Gulph of Guinea," p. 249, 1851. 



