Many of the assertions made as to peoples living together promiscuously are evidently erroneous. Travellers are often apt to misapprehend the manners and customs of the peoples they visit, and we should therefore, if possible, compare the statements of different writers, especially when so delicate and private a matter as the relation between the sexes is concerned. Sir Edward Belcher’s statement about the Andamanese has been disproved by Mr. Man, who, after a very careful investigation of this people, says not only that they are strictly monogamous, but that divorce is unknown, and conjugal fidelity till death not the exception but the rule among them.[283] As regards the Bushmans, Sir John Lubbock does not indicate the source from which he has taken the statement that they are “entirely without marriage;” all the authorities I have consulted, unanimously assert the reverse. Burchell was told that even a second wife is never taken until the first has become old, and that the old wives remain with the husband on the same terms as before.[284] Barrow tells us almost the same.[285] Indeed, as we have already seen, the family is the chief social institution of this people.
With reference to the Fuegians, Mr. Bridges, who has lived amongst them for thirty years, writes to me, “Admiral Fitzroy’s supposition concerning parties among the natives who lived promiscuously is false, and adultery and lewdness are condemned as evil, though through the strength of animal passions very generally indulged, but never with the consent of husbands or wives, or of parents.” From the description of Captain Jacobsen’s recent voyage to the North-Western Coast of North America, it appears that marriage exists among the Queen Charlotte Islanders also, although the husbands often prostitute their wives.[286] As for Professor Wilken’s statements about promiscuity among some peoples belonging to the Malay race, Professor Ratzel calls their accuracy in question. At least, among the Lubus, as Herr Van Ophuijsen assures us, a man has to buy his wife, just as among the other Malay peoples;[287] and Dr. Schwaner expressly says that all that we know about the Olo Ot depends on hearsay only.[288] But, according to him, they are not without marriage.[289]