abit with several men. The increase of population is,
accordingly, slight under polyandry; and it fits in with the difficulty
of securing subsistence, encountered in cold lands and mountain
regions;--whereby additional proof is furnished that also, in this, to
us so seemingly strange phenomenon of polyandry, production has its
determining influence upon the relations of the sexes. Finally, it is to
be ascertained whether among these peoples, who live on high mountains
or in cold zones, the killing of girl babies is not a frequent practice,
as is oft reported of the Mongolian tribes, on the highlands of China.

Exactly the reverse of the custom among the Romans during the Empire, of
allowing celibacy and childlessness to gain the upper hand, was the
custom prevalent among the Jews. True enough, the Jewish woman had no
right to choose; her father fixed upon the husband she was to wed; but
marriage was a duty, that they religiously followed. The Talmud advises:
"When your daughter is of marriageable age, give his freedom to one of
your slaves and engage her to him." In the same sense the Jews followed
strictly the command of their God: "Increase and multiply." Due to this,
and despite all persecutions and oppression, they have diligently
increased their numbers. The Jew is the sworn enemy of Malthusianism.

Already Tacitus says of them: "Among themselves there is a stubborn
holding together, and ready open-handedness; but, for all others,
hostile hatred. Never do they eat, never do they sleep with foes; and,
although greatly inclined to sensuousness, they abstain from procreation
with foreign women. Nevertheless they strive to increase their people.
Infanticide is held a sin with them; and the souls of those who die in
battle or by execution they consider immortal. Hence the love of
procreation beside their contempt of death." Tacitus hated and abhorred
the Jews, because, in contempt of the religion of their fathers, they
heaped up wealth and treasures. He called them the "worst set of
people," an "ugly race."[23]

Under the over-lordship of the Romans, the Jews drew ever closer
together. Under the long period of sufferings, which, from that time on,
they had to endure, almost throughout the whole of the Christian Middle
Ages, grew that intimate family life that is to-day considered a sort of
pattern by the modern bourgeois _regime_. On the other side, Roman
society underwent the process of disintegration and dissolution,