“A man having a daughter of thirteen or fourteen years of age,” says Mr. Smith in his description of the marriage customs in vogue among the Victorian tribes, “arranges with some elderly person for the disposal of her; and, when all are agreed, she is brought out and told that her husband wants her. Perhaps she has never seen him but to loathe him. The father carries a spear and a waddy, or tomahawk, and, anticipating resistance, is thus prepared for it. The poor girl, sobbing and sighing, and muttering words of complaint, claims pity from those who will show none. If she resists the mandates of her father, he strikes her with his spear; if she rebels and screams, the blows are repeated; and if she attempts to run away, a stroke on the head from the waddy or tomahawk quiets her. The mother screams and scolds and beats the ground with her _kan-nan_ (fighting-stick); the dogs bark and whine; but nothing interrupts the father, who, in the performance of his duty, is strict and mindful of the necessity of not only enforcing his authority, but of showing to all that he has the means to enforce it. Seizing the bride by her long hair he drags her to the home prepared for her by her new owner. Further resistance often subjects her to brutal treatment. If she attempts to abscond, the bridegroom does not hesitate to strike her savagely on the head with his waddy, and the bridal screams and yells make the night hideous.”[35] CHAPTER III THE KILLING OF TWINS—OTHER EXCUSES FOR INFANTICIDE—RESTRICTING THE FAMILY—ECONOMIC REASONS ACKNOWLEDGED—DYING OF DESPAIR. It has seemed necessary to dwell thus at length on the conditions among the Papuans and allied tribes as it appeared to me important that the very beginnings of the family should be understood. The general agreement of ethnologists as to the low standing of the Papuans justifies, I believe, our assuming them to be as near the point of culture of our neolithic (or paleolithic) ancestors as it is possible to come. From now on the course is upward. Strange as it may seem, the lowest tribes are less “human,” both in the matter of offspring and in the matter of sentiment of love for women, than some of the beasts and birds,[36] but having touched that depth, the next step brings us in contact with feelings that, in a way, begin to approximate our own. In the stages above the Papuans there is some affection for the woman; her position is nearer to that of wife and less that of captive. In consequence there is a more kindly regard for the children that she bears. Now begins the development of the parental _affection_. It is, however, confined to the female at first; “to this fact, rather than to doubt of paternity, should we attribute the very common habit in such communities of reckoning ancestry in the female line only.”[37] Man, no longer relying on his own cannibalistic brute force to do with his progeny as he wishes, invents reasons for doing away with his burdensome offspring.