Chap. XX. 
MANNER OF ACTION. 
371 
conscious selection would come into action through the 
more powerful and leading savages preferring certain 
women to others. Thus the differences between the 
tribes, at first very slight, would gradually and inevi- 
tably be increased to a greater and greater degree. 
With animals in a state of nature, many characters 
proper to the males, such as size, strength, special 
weapons, courage and pugnacity, have been acquired 
through the law of battle. The semi-human proge- 
nitors of man, like their allies the Quadrumana, will 
almost certainly have been thus modified ; and, as 
savages still fight for the possession of their women, a 
similar process of selection has probably gone on in a 
greater or less degree to the present day. Other cha- 
racters proper to the males of the lower animals, such 
as bright colours and various ornaments, have been 
acquired by the more attractive males having been 
preferred by the females. There are, however, excep- 
tional cases in which the males, instead of having been 
the selected, have been the selectors. We recognise 
such cases by the females having been rendered more 
highly ornamented than the males, — their ornamental 
characters having been transmitted exclusively or 
chiefly to their female offspring. One such case ha3 
been described in the order to which man belongs, 
namely, with the Eliesus monkey. 
Man is more powerful in body and mind than woman, 
and in the savage state he keeps her in a far more 
abject, state of bondage than does the male of any other 
animal; therefore it is not surprising that he should 
have gained the power of selection. Women are every- 
where conscious of the value of their beauty ; and when 
they have the means, they take more delight in deco- 
rating themselves with all sorts of ornaments than do 
