“What is he to do when she becomes old?  When she is young, if very lovely, perhaps, he might be satisfied with her, but even the young must some day grow old, and the beautiful must fade.  The man does not fade like a woman; therefore, as he remains the same for many years, Nature has arranged that the man shall have young wives to replace the old; does not the prophet allow it?”

He then pointed out what further advantage there was in having several wives: 

“This one carries water, that one grinds corn; this makes the bread; the last does not do much, as she is the youngest and my favorite; and if they neglect their work they get a taste of this!”

shaking a long and tolerably thick stick.

There you have the typical male polygamist with his reasons frankly stated—­sensual gratification and utilitarianism.

MOURNING TO ORDER

One of the most gossipy and least critical of all writers on primitive man, Bonwick, declares (97), in describing Tasmanian funerals, that

“the affectionate nature of women appeared on such melancholy occasions....  The women not only wept, but lacerated their bodies with sharp shells and stones, even burning their thighs with fire-sticks....  The hair cut off in grief was thrown upon the mound.”

Descriptions of the howling and tortures to which savages subject themselves as part of their funeral rites abound in works of travel, and although every school-boy knows that the deepest waters are silent, it is usually assumed that these howling antics betray the deep grief and affection of the mourners.  Now I do not deny that the lower races do feel grief at the loss of a relative or friend; it is one of the earliest emotions to develop in mankind.  What I object to in particular is the notion that the penances to which widows submit on the death of their husbands indicate deep and genuine conjugal affection.  As a matter of fact, these penances are not voluntary but prescribed, each widow in a tribe being expected to indulge in the same howlings and mutilations, so that this circumstance alone would make it impossible to say whether her lamentations over her late spouse came under the head of affection, fondness, liking, or attachment, or whether they are associated with indifference or hatred.  It is instructive to note that, in descriptions of mourning widows, the words “must” or “obliged to” nearly always occur.  Among the Mandans, we read in Catlin (I., 95), “in mourning, like the Crows and most other tribes, the women are obliged to crop their hair all off; and the usual term of that condolence is until the hair has grown again to its former length.”  The locks of the men (who make them do this), “are of much greater importance,” and only one or two can be spared.  According to Schomburgk, on the death of her husband, an Arawak wife must cut her hair; and until