men are celibate within the natural
groups of human society, or are driven out therefrom.

(b) Men thus driven out will seek mates on their own
account, and will secure them partly from the original
group as far as they are permitted or are successful
in their attempts, and partly by capture from other
local groups.

The first of these elements strongly emphasises the migratory
character of the earliest human groups. The second shows how each
group is relieved of the incubus of too great a number for the
economic conditions by the double process of sending forth its young
males, and of its younger females being captured by successful
marauders.

Let us take a fuller note of what the conditions of such a life might
be. There is no tie of kinship operating as a social force within the
groups; there is the unquestioned condition of hostility surrounding
each group, and there is the enforced practice of providing mates by
capture. Of these three conditions the most significant is undoubtedly
the absence of the kinship tie. If then we use this as the basis for
grouping the earliest examples of social organisation, we proceed to
inquire whether there are any examples of kinless society in
anthropological evidence.

Following up the clue supplied by folklore, we may see whether the
pygmy people of anthropological observation answer in any way to those
conjectural conditions.[332] I think they do. Thus, we find that the
pygmy people are in all cases on the extreme confines of the world's
occupation ground; that they occupy the territory to which they have
been pushed, not that which they have chosen. As the most primitive
representatives, they are the last outposts of the migratory
movements. Dr. Beke has preserved an account of the pygmies which even
in its terminology assists in their identification as a type of the
remotest stages of social existence. Dr. Beke obtained certain
information about the countries south-west of Abyssinia, from which
Latham quotes the following:--

"The people of Doko, both men and women, are said to
be no taller than boys nine or ten years old. They
never exceed that height even in the most advanced
age. They go quite naked; their principal foods are
ants, snakes, mice, and other things which commonly
are not used as food.... They also climb trees with
great skill to fetch down the fruits, and in doing
th