THE EEGULATION OF NUMBEES 219 



death '.^ Charlevoix says of the Abipones that ' they seldom rear 

 but one of each sex, murdering the rest as fast as they come into 

 the world, till the eldest are strong enough to walk alone. They 

 think to justify this cruelty by saying that, as they are almost 

 constantly travelling from one place to another, it is impossible 

 for them to take care of more infants than two at a time ; one to 

 be carried by the father, the other by the mother.' ^ 



Turning to races of the second group in Funafuti every mother 

 was allowed to keep alternate children, but the second, fourth, 

 and so on had to be destroyed.^ ' A Tikopian family is usually 

 limited to four children, any excess of this number being killed 

 by burying them alive in the house or just outside it ; occasionally 

 five or six may be kept ahve but never more. If the first four 

 children are girls one or more of these may be killed in the hope 

 that the succeeding children may be boys, in which case the lives 

 of the boys would be spared.' * In New Guinea, in the later years 

 of marriage, abortion is used in order to lessen the number of 

 children, since a large family would mean too much work for the 

 parents.^ In the Kingsmill Islands ' a woman seldom has more 

 than two children, and never more than three ; when she discovers 

 herself to be enceinte for the third or fourth time, the foetus is 

 discharged by a midwife '.^ In the Sandwich Islands, ' however 

 numerous the children among the lower orders, parents seldom 

 rear more than two or three, and many spare only one ; all the 

 others are destroyed, sometimes shortly after birth, generally 

 during the first year of their age '.' ' They consider three children 

 a burden,' says the same author in another passage, ' and are 

 unwilhng to cultivate a Httle more ground, or undertake the small 

 additional labour necessary to the support of their offspring during 

 the helpless period of infancy and childhood.' ^ ' No married 

 pair (among the Gilbert Islanders) are allowed by their law to 

 have nor bear more than four children, that is only four children 

 get the chance of life. The woman has the right to rear or to 

 endeavour to rear one child. It rests with the husband to decide 

 how many children shall hve, and this depends on how much land 

 there is to divide.' ^ In Fiji ' infanticide is more prevalent among 



^ Guinnard, loc. cit., p. 143. ^ Charlevoix, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 405. 



' Edgeworth David, Funafuti, p. 195. * Rivers, Melanesian Society, vol. i, 



p. 313. ' Neuhaus, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 150. ° Jenkins, loc. cit., p. 404. 



See also Kramer, loc. cit., p. 335. ' Ellia, Narrative, p. 324. " Ibid., 



p. 327. ' Tuituila, loc. cit., p. 267. 



