their statements are corroborated by the conspicuous prevalence of this custom among poor tribes and in islands whose inhabitants are confined to a narrow territory with. limited resources. 2 In the chapter dealing with human sacrifice we shall notice that infanticide is in some cases practised as a sacrificial rite. In other cases infants are killed for medicinal purposes, without being sacrificed to any divine being.1 Thus in the Luritcha tribe, in Central Australia, "it is not an infrequent custom, when a child is in weak health, to kill a younger and healthy one and then to feed the weakling on its flesh, the idea being that this will give to the weak child the strength of the stronger one.' A curious motive for female infanticide is also worth mentioning. That the victims of this practice are most commonly, among several peoples almost exclusively, females,3 is generally due to the greater usefulness of the men both as food-providers and in war. But the Hakka, a Mongolian tribe in China, often put their girls to a cruel death with a view to inducing thereby the soul to appear the next time in the shape of a boy.* Thus various considerations have led men to destroy their own offspring. Under certain circumstances the advantages, real or imaginary, assumed to result from the deed have been sufficiently great to silence the voice of parental love, which, as will be seen, is to be found even n the bosom of a savage father. The resistance offered Dy this instinct would be so much the less as the child is killed immediately after its birth, at a period of its life Behring Strait). Brough Smyth, op. it. i. 53; ii. 386 (aboriginal tribes of Australia and Tasmania). von Kotzeue, op. cit. iii. 173 (natives of Radack). Cutuila, in Jour. Polynesian Soc. i. 263 Line Islanders). Campbell, Campbell, Wild Tribes of Khondistan, p. 140 (Kandhs f Sooradah). Marshall, A Phrenologist mongst the Todas, p. 194. Kolben, p. cit. i. 144 (Hottentots). See also Haberland, loc. cit. p. 26; Dimitroff, Die Geringschätzung des menschlichen VOL, I Lebens und ihre Ursachen bei den 1 See infra, p. 458 sq. 2 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 475. Cf. ibid. p. 52. Cf. Haberland, loc. cit. p. 56 sqq. 4 Hubrig, quoted by Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 263. D D when the father's affection for it is as yet only dawning Even where, at first, infanticide was an exception, prac tised by a few members of the tribe, any interference from the side of the community may have been prevented by the notion that a person possesses proprietary rights ove his offspring; and, once become habitual, infanticide easily grew into a regular custom. In cases where it was found useful to the tribe, it would be enforced as a public duty: and even where there no longer was any need for it, owin to changed conditions of life, the force of habit might st keep the old custom alive. 4 Though infanticide is thus regarded as allowable, « even obligatory, among many of the lower races, we must not suppose that they universally look upon it in th light. Mr. McLennan grossly exaggerated its prevalenc: when he asserted that female infanticide is "common amon savages everywhere." Among a great number of them is said to be unheard of or almost so, and to these belon peoples of so low a type as the Andaman Islanders,3 the Botocudos, and certain Californian tribes." The Veddah of Ceylon have never been known to practise it. Amon the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego, Mr. Bridges informs me it occurred only occasionally, and then it was almost always the deed of the mother, who acted from "jealousy or hatred of her husband, or because of desertion ani wretchedness." Mr. Fison, who has lived for a long tim among uncivilised races, thinks it will be found th infanticide is far less common among the lower savage than it is among the more advanced tribes. Consideri 7 8 3 Man, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. & 329. 4 Wied-Neuwied, op. cit. ii. Keane, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xiii. 27 5 Powers, op. cit. pp. 192, 271, 6 Sarasin, Ergebnisse naturwis schaftlicher Forschungen auf Cey iii. 469, 539. 7 Bridges, in a letter dated Do east, Tierra del Fuego, August 28 1888. 8 Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi = Kurnai, p. 134 sqq. Cf. Farr it further that the custom of infanticide, being opposed to the instinct of parental love, presupposes a certain amount of reasoning or forethought, it seems probable that, where occurs, it is not a survival of earliest savagery, but has grown up under specific conditions in later stages of development. It is, for instance, very generally asserted that certain Indians in California never committed infanticide before the arrival of the whites; and Ellis thinks there is every reason to suppose that this custom was practised less extensively by the Polynesians during the early periods of their history than it was afterwards. 4 Where infanticide is not sanctioned by custom, the occasional commission of it has a tendency to call forth disapproval or excite horror. The Blackfeet are said to believe that women who have been guilty of this crime will never reach the happy mountain after death, but are compelled to hover round the seats of their crimes, with branches of trees tied to their legs. Speaking of another North American tribe, the Potawatomis, Keating observes :" In a few instances, it is said that children born deformed have been destroyed by their mothers, but these instances are rare, and whenever discovered, uniformly bring them into disrepute, and are not unfrequently punished by some of the near relations. Independently of these cases, which are but rare, a few instances of infanticide, by single women, in order to conceal intrigue, have been heard of; but they are always treated with abhorrence." 5 Among the Omahas " parents had no right to put their children to death." The Aleuts believed that a child-murder would bring misfortune ɔn the whole village. The Brazilian Macusis and Botocudos look upon the deed with horror. At Ulea, 9 8 4 Richardson, in Franklin, Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, p. 77. 5 Keating, op. cit. i. 99. 6 Dorsey, in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 268. 7 Dall, op. cit. p. 399. 8 Waitz, op. cit. iii. 391. 9 Wied-Neuwied, op. cit. ii. 39. of the Caroline Islands, "the prince would have the unnatural mother punished with death." So, too, Herr Valdau tells us of a Bakundu woman who, accused of infanticide, was condemned to death.2 In Ashanti a man is punished for the murder of his child.3 Among the Gaika tribe, of the Kafirs, the killing of a child after birth is punishable as murder, the fine going to the chief. Nay, even peoples among whom infanticide is habitual seem now and then to have a feeling that the act is not quite correct. Mr. Brough Smyth asserts that the Australian Black is himself ashamed of it ; and Mr. Curr has no doubt that he feels, in the commencement of his career at least, that infanticide is wrong, as also that its committal brings remorse." 5 The custom of infanticide in most cases requires that the child should be killed immediately or soon after its birth. Among certain North American Indians "the right of destroying a child lasted only till it was a month old," after which time the feeling of the tribe was against its death. Ellis says of the Society Islanders :___“ The horrid act, if not committed at the time the infant entered the world, was not perpetrated at any subsequent period. . . . If the little stranger was, from irresolution, the mingled emotions that struggled for mastery in its mother's bosom, or any other cause, suffered to live ter minutes or half an hour, it was safe; instead of : monster's grasp, it received a mother's caress and mother's smile, and was afterwards nursed with solicitude and tenderness." 8 Almost the same is said of othe South Sea Islanders and of tribes inhabiting the Australia: continent.10 That the custom of infanticide is generally 9 1 von Kotzebue, op. cit. iii. 211. 2 Valdau, in Ymer, v. 280. 3 Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, p. 258. 4 Maclean, Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, p. III. 5 Brough Smyth, op. cit. i. 54. 6 Curr, The Australian Race, i. 100. 7 Schoolcraft, quoted by Sutherland, op. cit. i. 119. 8 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 233 9 Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. vi. 13 139, 638. Angas, Savage Life ar Scenes in Australia and New Zealan i. 313. 10 Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 255. Spence and Gillen, Native Tribes of Centr Australia, p. 51. Iidem, Norther Tribes of Central Australia, p. 608. 3 restricted to the destruction of new-born babies also appears from various statements as to the parental love of those peoples who are addicted to this practice.1 In Fiji "such children as are allowed to live are treated with a foolish fondness." Among the Narrinyeri, "only let it be determined that an infant's life shall be saved, and there are no bounds to the fondness and indulgence with which it is treated"; and with reference to other Australian tribes we are told that it is brought up with greater care than generally falls to the lot of children. belonging to the poorer classes in Europe. Among the Indians of the Pampas and other Indians of that neighbourhood, who abandon deformed or sickly-looking children to the wild dogs and birds of prey, an infant becomes, from the moment it is considered worthy to live," the object of the whole love of its parents, who, if necessary, will submit themselves to the greatest privations to satisfy its least wants or exactions." In Madagascar, according to Ellis, "nothing can exceed the affection with which the infant is treated by its parents and other members of the family; the indulgence is more frequently carried to excess than otherwise." " "5 From these and similar facts, as also from the general absence of statements to the contrary, I conclude that murders of Ichildren who have been allowed to survive their earliest infancy are very rare, though not quite unknown,' among the lower races. The custom of infanticide prevails, or has prevailed, not only in the savage world, but among semi-civilised and 1 See infra, p. 529 sqq. ; also Haberland, loc. cit. p. 29, and Sutherland, op. cit. i. 115 sqq. 2 Williams and Calvert, op. cit. p. 142. 3 Taplin, in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 15. 4 Brough Smyth, op. cit. i. 51. Meyer, 'Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay Tribe,' in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 186. 5 Guinnard, op. cit. p. 144. |