760 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



wives. Others are polygamoas, for example the gorilla 

 and several Americaa speeiea, and each family lives sepa- 

 rate. Even when this occurs, the families inhabiting the 

 same district are probably somewhat social; the chimpan- 

 zee, for instance, is occasionally met with in large bands. 

 Again, other species are polygamous, but several males, 

 each with his own females, live associated in a body, as 

 with several species of baboons.* We may indeed con- 

 clude, from what we know of the jealousy of all male 

 quadrupeds, armed, as many of them are, with special 

 weapons for battling with their rivals, that promiscuous 

 intercourse in a state of nature is extremely improbable. 

 The pairing may not last for life, but only for each birth; 

 yet if the males which are the strongest and best able to 

 defend or otherwise assist their females and young were 

 to select, the more attractive females, this would suffice 

 for sexual selection. 



Therefore, looking far enough back in the stream of 

 time, and judging from the social habits of man as he now 

 exists, the most probable view is that he aboriginally lived 

 in small communities, each with a single wife, or, if power- 

 ful, with several, whom he jealously guarded against all 

 other men. Or he may not have been a social animal, and 

 yet have lived with several wives, like the gorilla; for all 

 the natives "agree that but one adult male is seen in a 

 JbaM]'^ten the young male grows up, a contest takes place 

 * for mastery, Siad^ the strongest, by killing and driving ojit 

 the others, establisIieS-~i2imself as the he^-^l^tte^ommu- 

 nity." " The younger males^eiTIf'^us expelled and wan- 

 dering about, would, when at last successful in finding a 

 partner, prevent too close interbreeding within the limits 

 of the same family. 



' Brehm ("Hlust. Thierleben," B. i. p. 11) says Cynocephaiua hamadryas 

 lives lu great troops containing twice as many adult females as adult males. 

 See Eengger on American polygamous species, and Owen ("Anat. of Verte- 

 brates," vol. iii. p. 746) on American monogamous species. Other references 

 might be added. 



'» Dr. Savage, in "Boston Journal of Nat. Hist.," vol v. 1845-41, p. 423. 



