In the Andaman Islands, or at least in certain of them, the women are said to have been held in common till quite recently. Every woman belonged to all the men of the tribe, and resistance to any of them was a crime severely punished.[76] This time we seem to have found, at length, a case of actual legal promiscuity. But, according to other accounts, the Andamanite man and woman contract, on the contrary, a monogamic and temporary union, and remain together, in case of pregnancy and maternity, until the child is weaned, as do many animals.[77] Now, however short a conjugal union may be, it is incompatible with promiscuity. The indigenous Indians of California, who are among the lowest of human races, couple after the manner of inferior mammals, without the least formality, and according to the caprice of the moment.[78] They are said even to celebrate feasts and propitiatory dances, which are followed by a general promiscuity.[79] According to Major Ross King, some aboriginal tribes of India, notably the Kouroumbas and the Iroulas, have no idea of marriage, and live in promiscuity.[80] The only prohibitory rule consists in not having intimate commerce with a person belonging to another class or caste; but there seem only to be two classes in the tribe. Barbarous tribes belonging to white races are said also to have practised promiscuity in modern times. Among certain tribes of the Zaporog Cossacks the women are said to be common, and are confined in separate camps.[81] Besides these, the Ansarians, mountaineers of Syria, are said to practise, not promiscuity pure and simple, or civil promiscuity, but a religious promiscuity, analogous to that of the ancient Gnostics[82] and the Areoïs of Tahiti. These Ansarians must doubtless have been confounded with the Yazidies, a sect of Arabs, also Syrians, practising a sort of manichæism, and who, it is said, assemble periodically every month, or every three months, in fraternal agapæ, at the conclusion of which they unite in the darkness without heed as to adultery or incest. Throughout the Syrian Orient the erotic festival of the Yazidies is called by a significant name, _Daour-el-Cachfeh_--the game of catching.[83] But even if the fact were true, what does it show? Only one more aberration to the score of the phallic religions. Here I end my enumeration. Evidently nothing very convincing results from it. The greater number of the facts that I have just quoted have either been carelessly observed, or contested, or affirmed by a single witness, or depend merely on hearsay evidence. It is prudent, therefore, to regard them with lawful suspicion, and even if certain of them are exact, we must be careful not to draw general conclusions from them. Promiscuity may have been adopted by certain small human groups, more probably by certain associations or brotherhoods. Thus the chiefs of the Namaquoi Hottentots willingly held their wives in common.