HUNTING AND FISHING EACES 145 



the largest number he met with.^ Portman mentions three as an 

 average.^ The Sarasins are of opinion that Veddah women are 

 fairly prolific and that the small families recorded are due to 

 infant mortality.^ Of the Tuski tribes Dall says ' they are not 

 prolific ',* and according to Deniker ' the Ghiliak women do not 

 have many children ; it is rare to find more than two or three to 

 a family '.^ 



8. We now come to the consideration of the factors of eliminatiom _ 

 The first practice, the extent of which we have to investigate, is 

 that of ahoitioft. The methods employed need not be specified in 

 each case ; the use of violent physical means is perhaps the most 

 common ; among other methods the drinking of various decoc- 

 tions is frequently referred to. Doubt is sometimes expressed as 

 to the efficacy of some of these means— especially that of the last 

 named. It may be that in some cases it is of the nature of a magical 

 ceremony without any practical result ; as a general rule, however, 

 there is no doubt that the methods used are effective. 



Among the Tasmanians ' abortion was frequently practised '.^ 

 Statements are sometimes made which seem to imply that abortion 

 was not uncommon among the Australians.'^ A survey of the 

 literature does not support this view ; the practice is indeed 

 mentioned occasionally, but it is clearly neghgible in comparison 

 with the universal presence of infanticide. Curr says that it is 

 occasionally employed.^ In Collins's account of the aborigines in 

 the neighbourhood of Port Jackson there is a reference to ' the 

 horrid and cruel custom of endeavouring to cause a miscarriage '.^ 

 Palmer records the practice as occurring among the Mythuggadi 

 tribe,^° and Roth says it is common among certain districts of 

 North-west and Central Queensland.^i Abortion has been noticed 

 among the Eskimos, but never as a common practice.^^ It is among 

 the Indian tribes of the North and the Pacific Coast that we find the 

 most numerous references to this custom.^^ Speaking of the tribes 

 near Hudson Bay, Ellis mentions ' a very strange maxim of pohcy 

 which prevails much amongst them, which is that of suffering 



1 Man, loc. cit., p. 81. " Portman, J. A. I., vol. xxv, p. 369. ' Sarasins, 



loc. cit., vol. iii, p. 169. * Dall, loc. cit., p. 381. * Deniker, Rev. d'Eth., 



vol. ii, p. 302. " Bonwick, loc. cit., p. 76. ' See, for example, Klemm, 



Allgemei-ne Kidhir-Gesckichte der Menschheit, vol. i, p. 291. ' Curr, Australian 



Race, vol. i, p. 76. * Quoted by a reviewer in the Edinburgh Review, vol. ii, 



1803, p. 34. 10 Palmer, J. A. I., vol. xiii, p. 280. " Roth, loc. cit., 



p. 183. " Wells and Kelly, U.S.A. Bureau of Education, 1890, p. 19 ; Bcsseh, 



loc. cit., p. 112. " See Weld, loc. cit., p. 373, and Robertson, History oj 



America, vol. i, p. 297 



2498 K 



