CHAP. III.] NATIVE CUSTOMS. 25 



this unnatural crime mostly occurs as an act of 

 revenge : broken faith, or desertion by the hus- 

 band, the illegitimacy of the children, matrimonial 

 dissensions, illicit connections with Europeans, 

 slavery during pregnancy, and separation from the 

 husband are the principal causes. In many cases 

 infanticide is the result of superstition of the gross- 

 est character, and is occasioned by fear of divine 

 anger and punishment. Rangi-tautau, the wife of 

 a young chief at the mission settlement at Roturua, 

 killed her first child under the following most 

 singular circumstances : while pregnant she was 

 one day at the pa on the other side of the lake, 

 where an old priestess had hung out her blanket 

 for the purpose of airing it ; the young woman ob- 

 served a certain insect upon the garment, caught 

 it, and, according to the native custom, eat it. She 

 thought that she had not been perceived, but the 

 old witch had seen her, and immediately poured 

 forth the most violent imprecations and curses upon 

 her for having eaten a louse from off her sacred gar- 

 ment, and foretold that she would kill and eat her 

 own child as a punishment for this sacrilegious 

 deed. This threat she frequently repeated after the 

 woman's confinement, and' worked so much upon 

 her agitated mind by threats of the vengeance of 

 Heaven, that the infatuated mother dug a hole, 

 buried her child, and trampled it to death, unmoved 

 by the piercing cries of the poor creature. But she 

 afterwards deeply repented having thus violated the 



