The Descent of Man

llowing manner, subject to greater or less interference
from female infanticide, early betrothals,
etc. The strongest and most vigorous
men—those who could best defend and hunt
for their families, who were provided with the
best weapons and possessed the most property,
such as a large number of dogs or other animals,—would
succeed in rearing a greater average
number of offspring than the weaker and
poorer members of the same tribes. There can,
also, be no doubt that such men would generally
be able to select the more attractive women.
At present the chiefs of nearly every tribe
throughout the world succeed in obtaining more
than one wife. I hear from Mr. Mantell that,
until recently, almost every girl in New Zealand
who was pretty, or promised to be pretty,
was tapu to some chief. With the Kafirs, as Mr.
C. Hamilton states (17. 'Anthropological Review,'
Jan. 1870, p. xvi.), "the chiefs generally
have the pick of the women for many miles
round, and are most persevering in establishing