The Descent of Man

the honour so gained it might ultimately have
become the universal habit. According to Sir J.
Lubbock (6. 'Address to British Association On
the Social and Religious Condition of the Lower
Races of Man,' 1870, p. 20.), we can also
thus understand "the necessity of expiation for
marriage as an infringement of tribal rites, since
according to old ideas, a man had no right to
appropriate to himself that which belonged to
the whole tribe." Sir J. Lubbock further gives a
curious body of facts shewing that in old times
high honour was bestowed on women who
were utterly licentious; and this, as he explains,
is intelligible, if we admit that promiscuous
intercourse was the aboriginal, and therefore
long revered custom of the tribe. (7. 'Origin of
Civilisation,' 1870, p. 86. In the several works
above quoted, there will be found copious evidence
on relationship through the females alone,
or with the tribe alone.)