762 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



rearing their few surviving childrea. In most cases a larger 

 number of female than of male infants are destroyed, for it 

 is obvious that the latter are of more value to the tribe, 

 as they will, when grown up, aid in defending it, and can 

 support themselves. But the trouble experienced by the 

 women in rearing children, their consequent loss of beauty, 

 the higher estimation set on them when few, and their hap- 

 pier fate, are assigned by the women themselves, and by 

 various observers, as additional motives for infanticide. 

 In Australia, where female infanticide is still common, 

 Sir G. Grey estimated the proportion of native women to 

 men as one to three; but others say as two to three. In a 

 village on the eastern frontier of India, Colonel MacCulloch 

 found not a single female child." 



When, owing to' female infanticide, the women of a tribe 

 were few, the habit of capturing wives from neighboring 

 tribes would naturally arise. Sir J. Lubbock, however, as 

 we have seen, attributes the practice, in chief part, to the 

 former existence of communal marriage, and to the men 

 having consequently captured women from other tribes to 

 hold as their sole property. Additional causes might be 

 assigned, such as the communities being very small, in 

 which case marriageable women would often be deficient. 

 That the habit was most extensively practiced during for- 

 mer times, even by the ancestors of civilized nations, is 

 clearly shown by the preservation of many curious cus- 

 toms and ceremonies of which Mr. M'Lennan has given an 

 interesting account. In our own marriages the "best man" 

 seems originally to have been the chief abettor of the bride- 

 groom in the act of capture. Now as long as men habitually 

 procured their wives through violence and craft, they would 

 have been glad to seize on any woman, and would not have 

 selected the more attractive ones. But as soon as the prac- 



'» Dr. Gerland ("tJeber das Ausaterbeu der Naturvolker, " 1868) has col- 

 lected much information on infanticide, see especially s. 27, 61, 54. Azara 

 ("Voyages," etc., torn. ii. pp. 94, 116) enters in detail oa the motives. See^ 

 also, M'Lennan (ibid., p. 139) for cases in India. 



