556 THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



twenty men are completely destitute by nature of a beard; but 

 occasionally there may be seen a man, who has neglected to pluck 

 out the hairs at puberty, with a soft beard an inch or two in 

 length. The Guaranys of Paraguay differ from all the surround- 

 ing tribes in having a small beard, and even some hair on the 

 body, but no whiskers.'" I am informed by Mr. D. Forbes, who 

 particularly attended to this point, that the Aymaras and Quichuas 

 of the Cordillera are remarkably hairless, yet in old age a few 

 straggling hairs occasionally appear on the chin. The men of 

 these two tribes have very little hair on the various parts of the 

 body where hair grows abundantly in Europeans, and the women 

 have none on the corresponding parts. The hair on the heail, 

 however, attains an extraordinary length In both sexes, often 

 reaching almost to the ground; and this is likewise the case with 

 some of the N. American tribes. In the amount of hair, and in the 

 general shape of the body, the sexes of the American aborigines do 

 not differ so much from each other, as in most other races. =" This 

 fact is analogous with what occurs with some closely allied mon- 

 keys; thus the sexes of the chimpanzee are not as different as 

 those of the orang or gorilla.-' 



In the previous chapters we have seen that with mammals, 

 birds, fishes, insects, &c., ma'ny characters, which there is every 

 reason to believe were primarily gained through sexual selection 

 by one sex, have been transferred to the other. As this same form 

 of transmission has apparently prevailed much with mankind, 

 it will save useless repetition if we discuss the origin of characters 

 peculiar to the male sex together with certain other characters 

 common to both sexes. 



Law of Battle. — With savages, for instance the Australians, the 

 women are the constant cause of war both between members of 

 the same tribe and between distinct tribes. So no doubt it was 

 in ancient times; "nam fuit ante Helenam mulier teterrima belli 

 "causa." With some of the North American Indians, the contest 

 is reduced to a system. That excellent observer, Hearne,^ says: — 



" Catlin, 'North American Indians,' 3rd edit. 1842, vol. ii. p. 227. On 

 the Guaranys, see Azara, 'Voyages dans I'Amerique Merid.' torn. ii. 

 1809, p. 68; also, Rengger, 'Saugethiere von Paraguay,' s. 3. 



20 Prof, and Mrs. Agassiz ('Journey in Brazil,' p. 630) remark that the 

 sexes of the American Indians differ less than those of the negroes 

 and of the higher races. See, also, Rengger, ibid. p. 3, on the 

 Guaranys. 



^ Rutimeyer, 'Die Grenzen der Thierwelt; eine Betrachtung zu Dar- 

 win's Lehre,' 1868, s. 54. 



^ 'A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort,' 8vo. edit. Dublin, 1796, 

 p. 104. Sir J. Lubbock ('Origin of Civilization," 1870, p. 69) gives other 

 and similar cases in North America. For the Guanas of S. America, 

 see Azara, 'Voyages,' &o., torn. ii. p. 94. 



