[275] Maine, Ancient Law, p. 241, London, 1885; Westermarck, loc. cit., p. 510.
[276] Shortt, Transact. Ethn. Soc., London, N.S., vol. vii., p. 264; Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, p. 403, London, 1854. Leroy-Beaulieu (L’Empire des Tzars, vol. vi., chap. 5, p. 488, Paris, 1885–89) attributes this custom to the over-exercise of paternal authority.
[277] The Torgoot Mongols, who practise this custom, explain it by the general rules of hospitality (Ivanovski, loc. cit.); in this respect they are in agreement with Westermarck, loc. cit., chap. vi.
[278] It must be observed on this point that, according to Westermarck, the horror of incest is not an instinctive sentiment (animals do not have it), but rather a social habit springing from sexual repulsion for persons, even unrelated to the family, with whom one has been brought up from infancy. Thus we often see marriages prohibited between one village and another (ancient Peru), or between god-parents, who superintend the baptism of a child, and are in no way allied to each other by blood (Russia). The learned Helsingfors professor, who believes in the omnipotence of sexual selection, explains the frequency of the aversion to incest by the survival of individuals who did not contract consanguineous marriages, always mischievous in his opinion. However, he admits that the bad effects of consanguineous marriages may be mitigated by material well-being, as is the case in Europe.
[279] See Ploss, Das Weib, 5th ed., vol. ii., 1897, Leipzig.
[280] E. Tylor, Journ. Anthr. Inst., vol. xviii., p. 248.
[281] Ploss (loc. cit.) mentions Australian, Eskimo, and North American Indian tribes among whom the child is suckled till the age of fourteen or fifteen.
[282] For an illustration of this see the “Description of Australian Initiation” (Bura), by R. Mathews, Journ. Anthr. Inst., vol. xxv., 1896, No. 4.
[283] Deniker, “Le peuple Tchouktch, etc.” (from Avgustinovich), Rev. d’Anthr., 1882, p. 323, and De Windt, Globus, 1897, vol. lxxi., p. 300.
[284] Tylor, loc. cit. (Anthr.), pp. 346, 420.