[Footnote 8: The author does not give examples of words for ‘sister’ implying avoidance. But we elsewhere show that in Lifu (Melanesia) the word for ‘sister’ means ‘not to be touched.’--A. L.] [Footnote 9: Other speculations have now been advanced, especially by Mr. Crawley.--A. L.] CHAPTER II SEXUAL RELATIONS OF ANIMALS Brother and Sister Avoidance, a partial usage among the higher mammals.--Males’ attitude to females in a group dominated by a single male head.--Band of exiled young males.--Their relations to the sire. --Examples in cattle and horses--In game-fowl.--Strict localisation of animals.--Exiled young males hover on the fringe of the parent group.--Parricide. Another difficulty in connection with the evolution of the so-called Primal Law of Avoidance between brother and sister from that early idea which we will presently disclose, seems to lie in the fact that if, as we uphold, such law was the first factor in the ascent of man, it must have taken its rise whilst he was still some ape-like creature. It remains, however, to be shown from its peculiar form that in its primitive application, the law would not have required for its intelligence greater mental power than is possessed by actual anthropoids. The law may indeed be said to be practically an inchoate fact, an actual if partial usage, for the regulation of the intersexual relations among most of the higher mammals. It could, at any rate, have come into full intelligent application as a well-defined social institution, in the actual sense of the term, whilst the anthropomorphic progenitor of man was still so little removed from the ape that His speech was yet as halting as his gait, Only less brutish than his moral state. Briefly, the law of Avoidance concerns (more particularly) the relation ‘inter se,’ from a sexual point of view, of the male and female offspring of any given parents. In other words it determines the mutual attitude to the females within a (single) family group dominated by a male head. Before, however, entering into the argument in this connection, it will be desirable to make a paraphrase on Mr. Darwin’s dictum as to the social condition of man in the animal stage in general, and more particularly in regard to his intermarital relations, and to compare this with that of actual mammals. It is to be noted that he does not pronounce definitely as to whether, in the era of pure animalism, the original type of man’s ancestor was social or non-social in habit. But we may judge from the extract already made from the _Descent of Man_ that Darwin evidently inclines to the opinion that, even primitively, he was a social animal, as seemingly more in accord with the present eminently social conditions.