582 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



In the island, and are sought by artists as models. But it is 

 ohvious that the evidence in all the above cases is doubtful. 



The following case, though relating to savages, is well worth 

 giving from its curiosity. Mr. Winwood Reade informs me that 

 the Jollofs, a tribe of negroes on the west coast of Africa, "are 

 "remarkable for their uniformly fine appearance." A friend of 

 his asked one of these men, "How is it that every one whom I 

 "meet is so fine-looking, not only your men, but your women?" 

 The Jollof answered, "It is very easily explained: it has always 

 "been our custom to pick out our worst-looking slaves and to 

 "sell them." It need hardly be added that with all savages, 

 female slaves serve as concubines. That this negro should have 

 attributed, whether rightly or wrongly, the fine appearance of 

 his tribe to the long-continued elimination of the ugly women is 

 not so surprising as it may at first appear; for I have elsewhere 

 shown* that negroes fully appreciate the importance of selection 

 in the breeding of their domestic animals, and I could give from 

 Mr. Reade additional evidence on this head. 



The Causes which prevent or checM, the AcMon of Sexual Selec- 

 tion with Savages. — The chief causes are, first, so-called com- 

 munal marriages or promiscuous intercourse; secondly, the con- 

 sequences of female infanticide; thirdly, early betrothals- and 

 lastly, the low estimation in which women are held, as mere 

 slaves. These four points must be considered in some detail. 



It is obvious that as long as the pairing of man, or of any 

 other animal, is left to mere chance, with no choice exerted by 

 either sex, there can be no sexual selection; and no effect will be 

 produced on the offspring by certain individuals having had an 

 advantage over others in their courtship. Now it is asserted that 

 there exist at the present day tribes which practice what Sir. 

 J. Lubbock by courtesy calls communal marriages; that is, all 

 the men and women in the tribe are husbands and wives to one 

 another. The licentiousness of many savages is no doubt aston- 

 ishing, but it seems to me that more evidence is requisite, before 

 we fully admit that their intercourse is in any case promiscuous. 

 Nevertheless all those who have most closely studied the subject," 



• 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. 1. 

 p. 207. 



= Sir J. Lubbock, 'The Origin of Civilization,' 1870, chap. iii. especially 

 pp. 60-67. Mr. M'Lennan, in his extremely valuable work on 'Primitive 

 Marriage,' 1865, p. 163, speaks of the union of the sexes "in the earliest 

 "times as loose, transitory, and in some degree promiscuous." Mr. 

 M'Lennan and Sir J. Lubbock have collected much evidence on the 

 extreme licentiousness of savages at the present time. Mr. L. H. 

 Morgan, in his interesting memoir on the classificatory system of re- 

 lationship ('Proc. American Acad, of Sciences,' vol. vii. Feb. 1868, p. 



