The Descent of Man

er of offspring. The tribes, which included the
largest number of men thus endowed, would
increase in number and supplant other tribes.
Numbers depend primarily on the means of
subsistence, and this depends partly on the
physical nature of the country, but in a much
higher degree on the arts which are there practised.
As a tribe increases and is victorious, it is
often still further increased by the absorption of
other tribes. (2. After a time the members or
tribes which are absorbed into another tribe
assume, as Sir Henry Maine remarks ('Ancient
Law,' 1861, p. 131), that they are the codescendants
of the same ancestors.) The stature
and strength of the men of a tribe are likewise
of some importance for its success, and these
depend in part on the nature and amount of the
food which can be obtained. In Europe the men
of the Bronze period were supplanted by a race
more powerful, and, judging from their swordhandles,
with larger hands (3. Morlot, 'Soc.
Vaud. Sc. Nat.' 1860, p. 294.); but their success