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Show CHAP. X. POLYGAMY. 429 uted by some authors to a rule of continence like that of the Mormons, and to a lactation prolonged for two years. The anomaly of such a practice in the midst of civilization is worthy of a place in De Balzac's great repertory of morbid anatomy: it is only to be equaled by the exceptional nature of the Mormon's position, his past fate and his future prospects. Spartan-like, the Faith wants a race of warriors, and it adopts the best means to obtain them. Besides religious and physiological, there are social motives for the plurality. As in the days of Abraham, the lands about New Jordan are broad and the people few. Of the three forms that unite the sexes, polygamy increases, while monogamy balances, and polyandry diminishes progeny. The former, as Montesquieu acutely suggested, acts inversely to the latter by causing a preponderance of female over male births: " Un fait important a noter," says M. Remy, "c'est qu'il y a en Utah beaucoup plus de naissances de filles que de gargons, resultat oppose' a ce qu'on observe dans tous les pays ou la monogamie est pratique'e, et par-faitement conforme a ce qu'on a remarque- chez les polygames Mussulmans." M. Remy's statement is as distinctly affirmed by Mr. Hyde, the Mormon apostate. In the East, where the census is unknown, we can judge of the relative proportions of the sexes only by the families of the great and wealthy, who invariably practice polygamy, and we find the number of daughters mostly superior to that of sons, except where female infanticide deludes the public into judging otherwise. Inlands where polyandry is the rule, for instance, in the Junsar and Bawur pergunnahs of the Dhun, there is a striking discrepancy in the proportions of the sexes among young children as well as adults: thus, in a village where 400 boys are found, there will be 120 girls; and, on the other hand, in the Gurhwal Hills, where polygamy is prevalent, there is a surplus of female children. The experienced East Indian official who has published this statement* is " inclined to give more weight to nature's adaptability to national habit than to the possibility of infanticide," for which there are no reasons. If these be facts, Nature then has made provision for polygamy and polyandry: our plastic mother has prepared her children to practice them all. Even in Scotland modern statists have observed that the proportion of boys born to girls is greater in the rural districts; and, attributing the phenomenon to the physical weakening of the parents, have considered it a rule so established as to " afford a valuable hint to those who desire male progeny." The anti-Mormons are fond of quoting Paley: " It is not the question whether one man will have more children by five wives, but whether these five women would not have had more children if they had each a husband." The Mormons reply that-setting aside the altered rule of production-their colony, unlike all oth- * Hunting in the Himalaya, by R. H. W. Dunlop, C.B., B.C.S., F.R.G.S., London, Richard Bentley, 1860. |
