HISTOEICAL EACES 259 



children that it needs some such practice to counterbalance it " 

 while . . . Seneca saw nothing reprehensible in it.' ^ Suetonius 

 has several allusions to the matter which prove that infanticide 

 was accepted by the Eomans in a very matter-of-fact spirit. 

 For instance, in describing the public grief for the death of 

 Germanicus, he mentions that many women exposed their 

 infants. The opening of the fourteenth episode of the Golden 

 Ass of Apuleius describes how a husband before going forth on 

 a journey directed his young wife that the coming babe if a girl 

 was to be destroyed ; the whole being related as a perfectly 

 natural and common occurrence.^ 



Among the Arabs it was very prevalent before the time of 

 Mohammed, by whom it was forbidden. Instances are given by 

 Smith to show the extent of the practice.^ Discussing the matter 

 in another place Smith says that Wilken ' doubts whether among 

 the Arabs the practice was carried to such an extent as to do more 

 than keep the sexes balanced — men being more exposed than 

 women to violent deaths ; but there is evidence that, at any 

 rate in some places and at some times, there was a strong pressure 

 of public opinion against bearing any daughter, even though she 

 were the only child of her parents. If we take along with this the 

 fact that wealthy and powerful men had often several wives, 

 there can, I think, be no question that, at least in some parts of 

 the country, wives must have been so scarce that the mass of 

 the tribesmen must have been driven to practise polyandry.' * 

 The evidence from China is somewhat conflicting ; this is probably 

 to be accounted for by the variations in habits in different parts 

 of the country. Norman has collected evidence to show its 

 wide extent. ' The testimony ', he says, ' of a Chinese teacher 

 is as follows : " Infanticide is very common among the poor, 

 and even people in pretty easy circumstances. There is hardly 

 a family in which at least one child has not been destroyed, and 

 in some famihes four or five are disposed of." . . . Another man, 

 who is now a member of the Christian Church, says that in his 

 village there is hardly a family that has not destroyed two or 

 three children. ... A lady contributor to the North China Daily 



1 Sutherland, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 136. ^ Ibid., p. 137. ^ Smith, 



Kinship, p. 279. See also Doughty, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 239, and Wilken, Das 

 Matriarchal, p. 53. ■* Smith, Kinship, p. 129. For evidence of infanticide in 

 Mingrelia see Chardin, Travds, p. 144. The Gagas put all children to death 

 and stole others (Battel, Straivg? Adventures, p. 326). 



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