[Footnote 23: _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, p. 165. In his edition of 1902, Lord Avebury does not reply to these arguments.] [Footnote 24: _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, pp. 274-278.] [Footnote 25: Spencer and Gillen, ch. vi.] [Footnote 26: Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ _Bureau of Ethnology_, 1881-1882, p. 225.] [Footnote 27: Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ _Bureau of Ethnology_, 1881-1882, pp. 238-239.] [Footnote 28: Dorsey, ‘Siouan Cults,’ _Bureau of Ethnology_, 1889-1890 (1894), p. 537.] [Footnote 29: Spencer and Gillen, pp. 169, 191.] [Footnote 30: Nutt, 1900, pp. 108-112.] [Footnote 31: _J. A. I._, August, November, 1898, p. 144.] [Footnote 32: _J.A.I._ xiv. 142, 181.] [Footnote 33: _Politics of Aristotle_, Bolland and Lang, 1876; ‘Family’ in Encyclopædia Britannica.] [Footnote 34: Dem. _Centra Neæram_ 17.] [Footnote 35: _Introduction to the History of Religion_, pp. 125-126.] PRIMAL LAW CHAPTER I MAN IN THE BRUTAL STAGE Mr. Darwin on the primitive relations of the sexes.--Primitive man monogamous or polygamous.--His jealousy.--Expulsion of young males.-- The author’s inferences as to the evolution of Primal Law.--A customary Rule of Conduct evolved.--Traces surviving in savage life.--The customs of Avoidance.--Custom of Exogamy arose in the animal stage.--Brother and Sister Avoidance.--The author’s own observation of this custom in New Caledonia.--Strangeness of such a custom among houseless nomads in Australia--Rapid decay under European influences. ‘Man, as I have attempted to show, is certainly descended from some Apelike Creature. We may, indeed, conclude, 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. 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 powerful, with several, whom he jealously guarded against all other Men. Or he may not have been a social animal[1] and yet have lived with several wives like the Gorilla--for all the natives agree that but one adult male is seen in a band; when the young male grows up, a contest takes place for the mastery, and the strongest, by killing or driving out the others, establishes himself as head of the Community. ‘Younger males, being thus expelled and wandering about, would, when at last successful in finding a partner, prevent too close interbreeding within the limits of the same family.’[2]