218 Infanticide Misinterpreted. 



beyond the limits of possibility. If all clans 

 killed their infant daughters, where could women 

 be found even to steal ? Under the stress of cir 

 cumstances making it impossible to procure suffi 

 cient subsistence, it is conceivable that savages 

 should destroy their young ; but, knowing the 

 savage s incapacity for providing against the fut 

 ure, I find it hard to believe that, in the cruel 

 grasp of the present, he should discriminate be 

 tween boys and girls when both alike are equally 

 burdensome. And Sir John Lubbock assures us, 

 that while infanticide has widely prevailed among 

 savages, &quot; boys were killed as frequently as girls. 

 Eyre expressly states that this was the case in 

 Australia &quot; (&quot; Origin of Civilization,&quot; p. 81). It 

 should further be noted that if, as McLennan 

 supposes, female infanticide coexists with exog 

 amy and wife-stealing, it would be difficult to 

 explain, not why so many female children are 

 killed, but why any are spared, seeing that none 

 can be married within the tribe. 



~No doubt, again, infanticide of females would 

 be sufficient to account for polyandry ; but neither 

 infanticide (whether of girls or boys or of both) 

 nor polyandry can be shown to be practices of uni 

 versal prevalence. It is possible, though not, I 

 think, verifiable, that in special circumstances the 



