PEIMITIVE AGEICULTURAL RACES 169 



practised abortion if conception took place before the previous 

 child had been weaned ; the suckling period among these people 

 lasted until the child was six or seven years old.^ The habit is 

 recorded of the Menomini tribe and of the Zunis, though it is rare 

 among the latter. ^ Among the Cheyennes " it has long been the 

 custom that a woman should not have a second child until her 

 first is ten years old '.^ Abortion is not mentioned in this case, 

 but in view of the widespread prevalence of this custom, abortion 

 is presumably the means used to bring about this result. In 

 Mexico * and throughout South America abortion was commonly 

 employed. ' The use of the means of abortion is common and 

 explains the small number of children ', says Karl von den Steinen 

 of the Bakairi.^ It is especially frequent in Brazil and among 

 the Indians of the Chaco.^ 



8. Compared with the prevalence of abortion, infanticide was 

 not very common among the agricultural tribes of the northern 

 half of the Continent. It was occasionally practised among the 

 Sioux, and more girls were killed than boys.' Of the Creeks it 

 is said that ' to destroy a new-born infant is not uncommon '.^ 

 It was common among the Pimas.^ Infanticide is usually confined 

 to the killing of deformed children, and in this form it is recorded 

 of the Apaches, Mohaves, Navahos, Zuni, and the Tepecano.^" 

 Infanticide is more common in South America. It is found in 

 Brazil among the Guanas ^^ and the Mbayas.^- The former are 

 said to kill more girls than boys. It is also practised to a con- 

 siderable extent in the Chaco. ' Infanticide is quite common 

 among the Lenguas, an interval of seven or eight years being 

 always observable between children of the same family.' ^^ Grubb 

 states that the first child is always killed if a girl.^* The killing 

 of deformed children is reported from many parts, including 

 Dutch Guiana ^^ and Peru.^^ 



9. War plays no less a part in the lives of the agricultural than 

 of the hunting tribes in America. It was perhaps more murderous 

 among the famous tribes of the Atlantic coast and the great 



» Russell, 26th A. R. B. E., p. 186. ^ Stevenson, 23rd A. R. B. E., p. 296. 



^ Grinnell, Am. Anth., vol. iv, p. 15. * Bancroft, loc. cit., vol. ii, pp. 183 and 



269. ' Von den Steinen, Durch Central-Brazilien, p. 123. * Ehrenreich, 



Konigliches Museum zu Berlin, vol. i, Heft 2, p. 27 ; Azara, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 116. 

 ' Schoolcraft, loc. cit., vol. iii, p. 243. « Ibid., vol. ii, p. 272. » Yarrow, 



A. R. B. E., vol. i, p. 99. i" Hrdlicka, loc. cit., p. 165. " Azara, loc. 



cit., vol. ii, p. 93. " Ibid., p. 116. " Hawtrey, J. A. I., vol. xxi, p. 295. 



" Grubb, loc. cit., p. 223. »* Bonaparte, Suriname, p. 48. '« Smythe 



and Lowe, Narrative, p. 240. 



