PART III.
THE DOMESTIC BELAII0N8.
sos^ CHAPTER I.
THE MAINTENANCE OF SPECIES.
§ 272. As fall understanding of tlie social relations oannot be gained without studying their genesis, so neither can full understanding of the domestic relations; and fully to understand the genesis of the domestic relations, we must go further back than the history of man carries us.
Of every species it is undeniable that individuals which die must be replaced by new individuals, or the species as a whole must die. No less obvious is it that if the death-rate in a species is high, the rate of multiplication also must be high, and conversely. And as this due proportioning of reproduction to mortality is requisite for mankind as for every other kind, we may infer that the facts exhibited by living beings in general must be considered before the meanings of the facts exhibited by human beings can be completely comprehended.
§ 278. Regarding the continued life of the species as in every case the end to which all others are subordinate (for if the species disappears all other ends disappear), let us look at the several modes there are of achieving this end. The requirement that the full number of adults shall arise in successive generations, may be fulfilled in variously -modified ways, which subordinate the existing and nextsucceeding members of the species in various degrees.
Low creatures having small powers of meeting the lifedettroying actmtieB aroundy and still tanallpr pciweta of fnrotectiiig progeny^ can utaintiain tiieir kinda only if tlie mature indrndoal prodooeB the genna of nev indrridaBls in inuneoae numbers; ao that, improiected and deCenccloas aa the germs arc, one or two maj esc^ie deabnctaan. Manifestly, the larger the pari ct the paientid sabatenoe tranaformed into germs (and often the great maas of it so transformed), the smaller is the part Aat can be devoted to indiyidnsl life.
With each germ, nsoaUy oontained in an OYum, is laid np some nntritiTe matter, avaiLible for growth before it com* mences its own straggle for existence. From a giren quantity of matter devoted by the parent-organism to reprodnction, there may be formed either a larger nnmber of germs with a smaller quantity of nntritiTe matter eaidi, or a smaller number witha larger quantity each. Hienoe result differences in the rates of juvenile mortality. Here of a ' million minute ova left uncared for, the majority are destroyed before they are hatched; multitudes of the remainder, with the feeblest powers of getting food and evading enemies, die or are devoured soon after they are hatched; so that very few have considerable amounts of individual life. Conversely, when the conditions to be met by the species make it advantageous that there should be fewer ova and more nutriment bequeathed to each, the young individuals, beginning life at more advanced stages of development, survive longer: the species is maintained without the sacrifice of so many before arrival at maturity.
All varieties in the proportions of these factors occur. An adult individual, the single survivor from hundreds of thousands of germs, may itself be almost wholly sacrificed individually in the production of germs equally numerous; in which case the species is maintained at enormous cost, both to adults and to young. Or the adult, devoting but a moderate portion of its substance to the.production of THE MAINTENANCE OF SPECIES. 623 germs^ may enjoy a considerable amount of life; in which case the cost of maintaining the species is shown in an immense mortality of the yonng. Or the adult^ sacrificing its substance almost entirely, may produce a moderate number of ova severally well provided with nutriment and well protected, among which the mortality is not so great; and in this case the cost of maintaining the species &ll8 more on the adult and less on the young.
§ 274. Thus while, in one sense, the welfare of a species depends on the welfare of its individuals, in another sense, the welfare of the species is at variance with the welfare of its individuals; and further, the sacrifice of individuals may tell in different proportions on the undeveloped and on the mature.
Already in the Principles of Biology, §§ 819 — 61, the* antagonism between Individuation and Genesis under its general aspects has been set forth. Here certain of its special aspects concern us. To comprehend them clearly, which we shall find it important to do, we must look at them more closely.
CHAPTER n.
FHK DIVERSE INTERESTS OF THE SPECIES, OF THE PARENTS, AND OF THE OFFSPRINO.
§ 275. Among tlie microscopic Protozoa, there is perpetual spontaneous fission. After a few hours of independent existence^ each individual is sacrificed in producing two new individuals, which, severally growing, soon themselves repeat the process. And then from time to time there occurs a still more extreme form of reproductive dissolution: after a period of quiescence the entire body breaks up into g^rms whence arise a new generation. Here, then, a parental life extremely brief, disappears absolutely in the lives of progeny.
Animal aggregates of the second order show us sundry ways in which this actual transformation of the parental body into the bodies of ofispring takes place; though now, of course, at much longer intervals. Among the CoBlsnterata, there is the case of certain meduscB, where the polype-like body of the parent, or quasi-parent, after reaching a certain growth, changes into a series of segments, like a pile of saucers, each of which, developing in turn, swims away and becomes a medusa. In these and allied cases of cyclical generation, it may, however, be held that, as the medusa is the adult form, the body of an unsexual individual is sacrificed in producing these partially-developed sexual individuals. A kindred result is achieved DIV£B8K INTSBB8TS OF SFBCIIS, PABXNTS, XTC. 625 in a different manner among some trematode eniozoa. Evolved far enough to have head, appendages, and alimentary system, a Oercaria presently transforms the whole of its internal substance into yoang Oercarice substantially like itself; and^ eventually bursting, sets them free, severally to pursue the same course. Finally, after two or three generations so produced, complete individuals are formed.
Different in method, but showing us in an equal degree the dissolution of a parent's body into portions that are to continue the race, is the mode of reproduction in the cestoid entozoa, A segment of a tape-worm, known as a proglottis in its adult and separated state, has then a life shown only by a feeble power of movement. It has descended from one out of myriads of eggs produced by a preceding tapeworm; and is itself, at the time of becoming an independent individual, nothing more than a receptacle for innumerable eggs. Without limbs, without senses, without even alimentaiy system, its vitality is scarcely higher than that of a plant; and it dies as soon as its contained masses of ova are matured. Here we have an extreme instance of subordination both of adult and young to the interests of the species.
Ascending now to higher types, let us take a few examples from the Articulaia, Many kinds of parasitic crustaceans^ such as the Lemea, pass through a brief early stage during which the young individual swims about. Nearly always it then dies; but if it succeeds in fixing itself on a fish, it loses its limbs and senses, and, doing nothing but absorb nutriment from the fish, evolves enormous ovisacs. Budding out from the sides of its body, these by and by greatly exceed its body in bulk: the parental life is lost in producing multitudinous eggs. An instance analogous in result, though somewhat different in method, occurs even among insects. Having no higher life than is implied by sucking in the juices of the cactus over which it creeps, the female cochineal insect develops, as it approaches maturity, masses of ova which eventually fill its interior; and gradually, 626 THB DOICISTIC BJIIATIOKS.
as its substance is absorbed into the oya^ it dies ttid leaves the shell of its body as a protective envelope for them: whence issaing^ ninety -nine are devoured for one that sorrives. Among superior insects, along with per* haps an equal sacrifice of young, the sacrifice of adults is less. After a larval stage during which the vital activities are relatively low and the mortality high, there comes, for the one survivor out of hundreds, an active maturity. This, however, is brief — ^sometimes lasting but for a few days; and after the deposition of eggs, life forthwith ceases.
The Vertebrata will furnish such further illustrations as are needed. In this class the sacrifice of parental life to the maintenance of the species, is in few if any cases direct. A cod produces above a million eggs, and, surviving, does this year after year; but whUe the life of the parent is preserved, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand and more of the progeny have their Hves cut short at various stages on the way to maturity. In higher types of the class, producing comparatively few eggs that are better provided for, this sacrifice of the rising generation to the interests of the species is much less; and for the like reason it is much less also in the next highest group of vertebrates, the Am^ phibia, Passing-to Birds, we find preservation of the race secured at a greatly-diminished cost to both parents and offspring. The young are so well fostered that out of a small number most grow up; and here perhaps a half, and there perhaps a fourth, reach the reproductive stage. Further, the lives of parents are but partially subordinated at times when the young are being reared. And then there are long intervals between bt^eeding-seasons, during which the Hves of parents are carried on for their own sakes. In the highest class of vertebrates, the Mammalia, regarded as a whole, we see a like general advance in this conciliation of the interests of the species, the parents, and the young; and we also see it within the class itself, on ascending from its lower to its higher types. A small rodent reaches maturity in a few months; andj prodacing large and frequent broods^ soon dies: there is but a short early period during which the female lives for herself^ and she mostly loses life before the reproductive age is past^ so having no latter days unburdened by offspring. Turning at once to the other extreme we find an immense contrast. Between twenty and thirty years of the young elephant's life passes entirely in individual development and activity. The tax of bearing offspring, relatively few and at long intervals, subordinates in but a moderate degree the life of the adult female. And though our knowledge does not enable us to say how long life lasts after the reproductive age is past, yet, considering that the powers remain adequate for sustentation and self-defence, we may infer that the female elephant usually enjoys a closing series of many years; while the male is throughout life scarcely at all taxed.
§ 276. In yet another way does evolution decrease the saorifice of individual life to the life of the species. The material cost of reproduction involves an equivalent subtraction from individual development and activity, for which among low types there is no compensation; but as we ascend through higher types we find an increasing compensation in the shape of parental pleasures.
Limiting our illustrations to vertebrate animals, we see that by most fishes and amphibians, the spawn, once deposited, is left to its fate: there is great physical expense, and if no subsequent efforts are entailed, there are also none of the accompanying gratifications. It is otherwise with birds and mammals. While the rearing of offspring entails labour on one or both parents, the parental life, though thereby in one way restricted, is in another way extended; since it has become so moulded to the requirements, that the activities of parenthood are sources of agreeable emotions, just as are the activities which achieve self-sustentation.
When from the less intelligent of these higher vertebrates 628 THE DOMIBTIC BIL1TX0N8.
which produce many young at short internals, and have to abandon them at early ages, we ascend to the more in* telligent which produce few young at longer intervals, and give them aid for longer periods; we perceive that, while the rate of juvenile mortality is thus diminished, there results both a lessened physical cost of maintaining the species, and an augmented satisfaction of the affections.
§ 277. Here, then, we have definite measures by which to determine what constitutes advance in the relations of parents to ofispriDg and to one another. In proportion as organisms become higher in their structures and powers, they are individually less sacrificed to the maintenance of the species; and the implication is that in the highest type of man this sacrifice is reduced to a minimum.
Commonly, when discussing the domestic relations, the welfare of those immediately concerned is almost exclusively regarded. The goodness or badness of g^ven connexions between men and women, is spoken of as though the effects on the existing adult generation were chiefly to be considered; and, if the effects on the rising generation are taken into aq^unt, little if any thought is given to the effects which future generations will experience. This order has, as we see, to be reversed.
Family organizations of this or that kind have first to be judged by the degrees in which they help to preserve the social aggregates they occur in; for, in relation to its component individuals, each social aggregate stands for the species. Mankind survives not through arrangements which have reference to it as a whole, but by survival of its separate societies; each of which struggles to maintain its existence in presence of other societies. And the survival of the race, achieved through the survival of its constituent societies, being the primary requirement, the domestic arrangements most conducive to survival in each society^ must be regarded as relatively appropriate.
In SO far as it consists witli preservation of the society, tlie nextliighest end is raising the largest number of healthy offspring &om birth to maturity. The qualification does not seem needed; but we shall find evidence that it is needed. Societies, and especially primitive groups, do not always thrive by unchecked increase in their numbers; but, contrariwise, in some cases preserve themselves from extinction at the cost of increased mortality of the young.
After welfare of the social group and welfare of progeny, comes welfare of parents. That form of marital relation must in each case be held the best which, subject to these preceding requirements, farthers most, and burdens least, the lives of adult men and women.
And as a last end to be contemplated comes that furtherance of individual life which we see when the declining years of parents, elongated and made pleasurable by offspring, iJiso become sources of pleasure to those offspring.
Uniting these propositions, we draw the corollary that the highest constitution of the family is reached when there is such conciliation between the needs of the society and those of its members, old and young, that the mortality between birth and the reproductive age falls to a minimum, while the lives of adults have their subordination to the rearing of children reduced to the smallest degree. The diminution of this subordination takes place in three ways: first, by elongation of that' period which precedes reproduction; second, by decrease in the number of offspring borne and reared, as well as by increase of the pleasures taken in the care of them; and third, by lengthening of the life that follows cessation of reproduction.
This ideal of the family suggested by a survey of the sexual and parental relations throughout the organic world, is also the ideal to which comparisons between the lower and the higher stages of human progress point. In savage tribes we habitually find great juvenile mortality: there is commonly more or less infanticide; or there are many earl J deKths from mfiiTDiErmble cofoditioiis; or time are both. Agidn, these inferior races are charactmaed Ytj earlj matoritj and commencing reprodaction; implying sihortnesa of that first period during which the indrridnal life is carried on for its own sake. YThile fertilitj laats^ the tax, especiall J on the women, who are also exhausted bj dradgeries, is great. "Hie marital and parental rdaJtiaoE are sources of pleasures neither so high nor so prolonged as in the cirilixed races. And then after children have been reared, the remaining life of eithor sex is brief: often being ended by yiolenoe; often bj ddiberate desertion; and otherwise by rapid decay unchecked by filial care.
We are thus famished with both a relatire standard and an absolute standard by which to measure the domestk; relations in each stage of social progress. While, judging them relatiYely by their adaptations to the aooompanying social requirements, we may be led to regard as needful in their times and places, arrangements that are repugnant to us; we shall, judging them absolutely, in relation to ike most dereloped types of life, individual and national, find good reasons for reprobating them. For this preliminary survey clearly reveals the fact that the domestic relations which are the highest as ethically considered, are also tiie highest as considered both biologically and sociologically.* * Thi« feemi the fifciert place for naming an impcntuit snggestioD made bj an American adherent of mine, late Lectnrer on Fhiloeophy at Hanrard Uiii-Territj, Mr. John Fiske^ respecting the truuition from the gregariouneB of anthropoid ereatnrei to the iodality of hnman beings, caused by the relations of parents to offspring. (See OmUimet <^ Cdamie Phiiotapkf, voL il, pp. 342^) Postnlating the general law that in proportion as organis'ns are complex thej evolve slowly, he infers that the prolongation of infancy which accompanied development of the less intelligent primatei into the more intelligent ones, implied greater duration of parental eaie^ Children, not so soon capable of providing fiir themselves, had to be loogiv nnrtnred by female parents, to some extent aided by male parents, individnall^ or jointly; and hence resulted a bond holding together parents and offspring tor longer periods, and tending to initiate the family. That this has been a oo-operating factor in social evolution, is highly probable.
CHAPTER III.
PBIMITIYK ABLATIONS OV THE SEXES.
§ 278. Most readers will have thonglit it strange to begin an account of the domestic relations by surveying the most general phenomena of race-maintenance. But they may see the propriety of setting out with a purely natural-history * yiewj on being shown that among the lowest savages the relations of the sexes differ in no marked ways from those common among inferior creatures.
The males of gregarious mammals usually fight for possession of the females; and primitive men do not in this respect differ from other gregarious mammals. Hearne tells us of the Chippewayans that '' it has ever been the custom among these people for the men to wrestle for any woman to whom they were attached.^' According to Hooper, as quoted by Bancroft, a Tuski, desiring another one's wife, fights with her husband. Of the Bushmen, lichtenstein writes — '' the stronger man will sometimes take away the wife of the weaker.^' So again, Narcisse Peltier, who from twelve years of age up to twenty-nine was detained by a tribe of Queensland Australians, states that the men " not unf requently fight with spears for the possession of a woinan.'' And summing up the accounts of the Dogrib Indians, Sir John Lubbock says — ^' In fact, the men fight for the possession of the women, just like stags.''
Nor is it on the part of males only, that this practice 632 THE BOMSSTTC BEIATIONS.
exists. Peltier tells ns that in the above-named tribe^ the women, of whom from two to five commonly belong to eadi man, fight among themselves about him: " their weapons being heavy staves with which they beat one another about the head till the blood flows/' And the trait of feminine nature thus displayed, is congruous with one indicated by Mitchell, who says that ''after battle, it frequently happens nmong the native tribes of Australia, that the wives of the conquered, of their own free will, go over to the victors": reminding us of the lioness which, quietly watching the fight between two lions, goes off with the conqueror.
We have thus to begin with a state in which the &mily, as we understand it, can scarcely be said to exist. In the loose groups of men first formed, there is no established order of any kind: everything is indefinite, unsettled. As the relations of men to one another are undetermined, so are the relations of men to women. In either case there are no guides save the passions of the moment, checked only by fears of consequences. Let ns glance at the facts which show the relations of the sexes to have been originally unregulated 'by the institutions and ideas we commonly regard as natural § 279. According to Sparman, there is no form of union between Bushmen and Bushwomen save " the agreement of the parties and consummation.^' Keating tells us that the Ghippewas have no marriage ceremony. Hall says the same thing of the Esquimaux, Bancroft of the Aleuts, Brett of the Arawaks, Tennent of the Yeddahs, and the Lower Calif ornians, Bancroft says, ''have no marriage ceremony, nor any word in their language to express marriage. Like birds or beasts, they pair off according to &ncy.''
Even where a ceremony is found, it is often nothing more than either a forcible or a voluntary commencement of living together. Very generally there is a violent seizure of the woman by the man — a capture; and the marriage is ooncladed by the completion of this capture. In some cases the man and woman light a fire and sit by it; in some cases^ as among the Todas^ the union is established when the bride performs " some trifling household function '/^ in some cases, as among the New Guinea people^ " the female gives her intended some tobacco and betel-leaf/' Davis says that when the Navajos desire to marry, " they sit down on opposite sides of a basket, made to hold water, filled with atole or some other food, and partake of it. This simple proceeding makes them husband and wife.'' Nay, we have the like in the old Boman form of confarreatio — marriage constituted by jointly eating cake. These indications that the earliest marriage-ceremony was merely a formal commencement of living together, imply a preceding time when the living together began informally.
Moreover, such domestic union as results is so loose, and often so transitory, as scarcely to constitute an advance. In the Chippewayan tribes '^ divorce consists of neither more nor less than a good drubbing, and turning the woman out of doors." The Peric6i (Lower Galifomian) *' takes as many women as he pleases, makes them work for him as slaves, and when tired of any one of them turns her away.*' Similarly, according to Southey, when one of the Tupis ''was tired of a wife, he gave her away, and he took as many as he pleased.'' Bonwick tells us that for Tasmanians not to change their wives, was ''novel to their habits, and at variance with their traditions." Of the Kasias, Yule alleges that '' divorce is so frequent that their unions can hardly be honoured with the name of marriage." Even peoples so advanced as the Malayo-Polynesians furnish kindred facts. In Thompson's New Zealaiid we read that '' men were considered to have divorced their wives when they turned them out of doors." And Ellis, confirming Cook, says that in Tahiti " the marriage tie was dissolved whenever either of the parties desired it." It may be added that this careless breaking of marital bonds is 684 THS MBMmc BBUiTunra.
not peodkr to men. Where women hnTe t]ie power^ as asottg the above-named Kaaias, thej cavalierly tarn their hoflbands oat of doors if €bef displease them; and Hetren tells US that the like happened with some of the Aucwit Mexicans.
These facts^ whidi might be supported bj many othorsy show ns clearly enough that the marital reh^ns, like the political relations, have gradually erolyed; and that there did not at first exist those ideas and feelings which anumg civilized nations give to marriage its sanctity.
§ 280. Absence of these ideas and feelings is further shown by the prevalence in rode societies of praciices which are to us in the highest degree repngnant.
Yarions of the anciviUaed and semi-civilized display hospitality by furnishing guests with temporary wives. Herrera tells us of the Gumana people, that '' the great men kept as many women as they pleased, and gave the beautifuUest of them to any stranger they entertained.'^ Savages habitually thus give their wives and daughters. Among such Sir John Lubbock enumerates the Esquimaux, North and South American Indians, Polynesians, Eastern and Western Negroes, Arabs, Abyssinians, Kaffirs^ Mongols, Tutski, etc. Of the Bushman wife Sparman tells us that when the husband gives her permission, she may go whitiier she will, and associate with any other man. Of the Oreenland Esquimaux, Egede, as quoted by Sir John Lubbock, expressly states that '' those are reputed the best and noblest tempered who, without any pain or reluctancy, will lend their friends their wives."
Akin is the feeling shown by placing little or no value on chastity in the young. Li Beng^ela (Congo), according to Bastian, poor maidens were led about before marriage, in order to acquire money by prostitution. Prom Herrera we learn that the Mexicans had an identical custom: ''parents used when the maidens were marriageable, to send them to PBIMITITI BUiinONS OV TBI SIZES^ 63S earn their portions, and accordinglj they ranged about the oonntry in a shameful manner till they had got enough to many them oS.'' Bancroft says the ancient people of the Isthmas of Darian thought " prostitution was not infamous; noble ladies held as a maxim, that it was plebeian to deny anytl^ng asked of tiiem'^ — an idea like that of the Andam^ anese, among whom good manners are thought to lequire concessions of this kind. Equally stnmge are the marital sentiments diqibyed by oertain peoples, both extant and extinct. QftheABsanyeh Arabs, whose marriages are for so many days in the week, usually four, Petherick tells us that during a preliminary negotiation the bride's mother protests against '' binding her daughter to a due observance of that chastity which matrimony is expected to command, for more than two days in the week;'' and there exists on the part of the men a duly adapted sentiment: the husband, allowing the wife to disregard all marital obligations during the off days, even considers an intrigue with some other man as a compliment to his own taste. Some of the Chibchas of ancient Central America betrayed a kindred feeling. Not simply were they indifferent to virginity in their brides, but if their brides were virgins '' thought them unfortunate and without luck, as they had not inspired affection in men: accordingly they disliked them as miserable women.''
While lacking the ideas and feelings which regulate the relations of the sexes among advanced peoples, savages often exhibit ideas and feelings no less strong, but of quite contrary characters. The Shushwaps of Columbia hold that ** to give away a wife without a price is in the highest degree disgraceful to her family;" and; similarly, by the Modocs of CaUfomia ''the children of a wife who has co&t her husband nothing are considered no better than bastards, and are treated by society with contumely." Again, in Burtons Abeohuia, we read that ''those familiar with modes of thought in the East well know the horror and loathing with which the people generally look upon the one-wife system '' — a statement we might hesitate to receiye were it not verified by that of Livingstone concerning the negfTO women on the Zambesi, who were shocked on hearing that in England a man had only one wife, and by that of Bailey, who describes the disgust of a Kandian chief when commenting on the monogamy of the Yeddahs.
§ 281. Still more are we shown that regular relations of the sexes are results of evolution, and that the sentiments upholding them have been gradually established, on finding how little regard is paid by many uncivilized and semicivilized peoples to those limitations which blood-relationships dictate among the civilized.
Among savages, connexions which we condemn as in the highest degree criminal, are by no means infrequent. Heame says of the Chippewayans that many of them '' cohabit occasionally with their own mothers, and fre^juently espouse their sisters and daughters; " and Bancroft quotes Langsdorff as saying the like of the Kadiaks. So, too, respecting the Elarens of Tenasserim, Heler tells us that " matrimonial alliances between brother and sister, or father and daughter, are not uncommon to this day.'' To these cases from America and Asia may be added a case from Africa. According to Bastian, to keep the royal blood pure, the kings of Gape Gk)nzalves and (Gaboon are accustomed to marry their grown up daughters, and the queens marry the eldest sons.
Incest of the kind that is a degree less shocking is exemplified by more numerous peoples. According to Clavigero, marriage between brother and sister was not prohibited by the Panuchese. Concerning the people of Cali, Piedrahita says that ''they married their nieces, and some of the lords their sisters." Torquemada states that " in the district of New Spain four or five cases ^^ ^^ ^^ of marriage with sisters were found." In Peru, the " Yncas from the first estab* lished it as a very stringent law and custom that the heir to the kingdom should marry his eldest sister, legitimate both PBIMITIYE BSLATIONS OF TH£ SEXES. 637 on the side of the father and the mother/' So, too, in Polynesia, Ellis tells us of the Sandwich Islanders, that near consanguineoas marriages are frequent in the royal family — brothers and sisters sometimes marrying. Describing the customs of the Malagasy, Drury says " the nearest of kin marry, even brother and sister, if they have not the same mother/' Nor do we lack instances among ancient peoples of the old world. *' That the restriction [prohibiting marriage with a uterine sister] was not observed in £gypt, we have sufficient evidence from the marriages of several of the Ptolemies,'' says Wilkinson. Even our own Scandinavian ancestors allowed incest of this kind. It is stated in the Heitnshringla Saga that Niord took his own sister in marriage, ''for that was allowed by" the Yanaland law.
It may be said that certain of these unions are with halfsisters (like the union of Abraham and Sarah); that such occurred among the Canaanites, Arabians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians; and that they go along with non-recognition of kinship in the male line. But admitting this to be true in some of the cases, though clearly not in others, we are still shown how little warrant exists for ascribing to primitive instinct the negations of unions between those nearly related; for the very words forbidding marriage to a halfsister having the same mother, though not to one having the same father, clearly imply that the male parenthood is habitually known though disregarded.
As further proving that sentiments such as those which among ourselves restrain the sexual instincts, are not innate, I may add the strange i&ct which Bailey tells us concerning the Yeddahs. Their custom '^ sanctions the marriage of a man with his younger sister. To marry an elder sister or aunt would, in their estimation, be incestuous, a connection in every respect as revolting to them as it would be to us — ^as much out of the question and inadmissible as the marriage with the younger sister was proper and natural. It was, in fact, the proper marriage."
638 THS DOMisnc bbultioks.
^ 282. WMe the fiicts show us a g^eral association be* tween the radest forms of social existence and the most degraded relations of the sexes, they do not show us that social progress and progress towards a higher type of family life are aniformly connected. Yarions anomalies meet as.
Unendoring anions characterize many of the lowest races; and yet the miserable Yeddahs, lower than most in their social state, form onosoally endaring anions. Bailey writes— "Divorce is unknown among them. * ** I have heard a Yeddah say, ^ Death alone separates hosband and wife ^ '': a trait in which their Eandian neighbours, otherwise considerably superior, differ from them widely.
Nor do we find that the diminution of incestuous connexions, preserres a constant ratio to social evolution. Those extreme forms of them which we have noted among some of the most degraded races of North America, are paralleled among royal faunilies in African kingdoms of considerable size; while forms of them a degree less repulsive are common to savage and semi-civilized.
Though that type of family life in which there is one wife to several husbands is said to occur among some of the lowest tribes, as the Fuegians, yet it is by no means common among the lowest; while we meet with it among relativelyadvanced peoples, in Ceylon, in Malabar, aud in Thibet. And the converse arrangement, of many wives to one husband, almost universally allowed and practised by savages^ not only survives in semi-civilized societies but has held its ground in societies of considerably-developed types, past and present.
Neither are there connexions so clear as might have been expected, between sexual laxity and general debasement^ moral or social; and conversely. The relatious between the men and women in the Aleutian Islands are among the most degraded. Nevertheless these islanders are described by Cook as " the most peaceful, inoffensive people I ever met with. And, as to honesty, they might serve PRIMrnVS RELATIONS 01 THK flXXlfl. 68tf