26 INFANTICIDE. [PART I. 



most sacred law of nature ; and, perhaps, in conse- 

 quence of this, she and her husband separated from 

 their tribe and became the principal supporters of 

 the missionary. 



They have other modes of killing the child : the 

 head of the infant not yet fully born is compressed, 

 and thus its existence terminated ; and sometimes 

 abortion is effected by pressing violently upon the 

 abdomen with a belt. Many children are still- 

 born ; but I suspect that in almost all these cases 

 death was caused by the mother. It makes no dif- 

 ference whether the child is male or female ; but if 

 the woman is desirous that her child should be of the 

 one sex, and has boasted that she knows it will be 

 so, on its proving of the other sex she frequently 

 sacrifices it. The child, if suffered to survive the 

 first moments of its existence, is generally safe ; 

 and even under the circumstances I have mentioned, 

 maternal love often gets the better of anger or de- 

 spair. I have known cases, however, where in a fit 

 of passion or jealousy the child was afterwards mur- 

 dered by the mother or her relations. 



The child who is not doomed thus to perish at 

 its birth is nursed with affection and tenderness, 

 either by the mother o'r by some other woman of 

 the tribe, who gives it her breast. During a great 

 part of its infancy it is taken care of by the father, 

 who evinces admirable patience and forbearance. 

 It remains unclothed and exposed to the incle- 

 mency of the weather, but often takes refuge in the 



