HUNTING AND FISHING EACES 147 



Australia infanticide is practised on a very large scale. Parker 

 states that it was very frequent and that deformed children were 

 always killed. 1 Lumholtz's testimony is similar, 2 while, according 

 to Dawson, no matter how many children are born, ' rarely more 

 than four are allowed to grow up ' the deformed children 

 apparently always being destroyed. 3 According to an estimate 

 made by Curr of conditions in Victoria ' nearly one half [of the 

 children born to any one married woman] fell victims to infanti- 

 cide * 4 , and more girls than boys perished. 5 According to Wil- 

 helmi, if, as rarely happens, births follow one another quickly 

 among the aborigines of the Port Lincoln district, ' the youngest 

 is generally destroyed ' ; 6 Beveridge says that the practice 

 prevails in Victoria and Riverina * to a very considerable extent '. 7 

 This last statement is supported by that of Mathews to the effect 

 that ' infanticide is common ' in New South Wales and Victoria. 8 

 Among the inhabitants of the River Darling region ' it seems to 

 have been the custom to kill many of the children directly after 

 birth ', 9 and in Southern Australia infanticide was very prevalent. 10 

 According to Howitt infanticide was practised ' to some extent ' 

 among the Mining Tribe, 11 in the Tongeranka tribe it was ' com- 

 mon ' ; 12 in the Mukjarawaint tribe ' the grandparents had to decide 

 whether a child was to be kept alive or not ' ; 13 in all the tribes of 

 the Wotjo nation and also the Tatuthi and other tribes of the 

 Murray River frontage, when a child was weak and sickly they 

 used to kill its infant brother and sister and feed it with the flesh 

 to make it strong ; 14 in the Wadthaurung tribe the practice was 

 evidently not uncommon ; 15 in the Narrinyeri tribe infanticide 

 appears to have been very prevalent, so that ' more than one half 

 of the children fell victims to this atrocious custom ', 16 whilst 

 deformed children seem always to have been killed both in this 

 case 17 and among the aborigines of Encounter Bay. 18 Infanticide 

 was common among the tribes of Port Lincoln girls being less 

 often spared than boys 19 among the Dieyerie tribe, where 



1 K. L. Parker, loc. cifc., p. 23. a Lumboltz, loo. cit., p. 134. 3 Dawson, 



loc. cit., p. 39. Curr, Recollections, p. 252. 6 Ibid., p. 263. 



6 Wilhelmi, loc. cit., p. 180. ' P. Beveridge, Aborigines of Victoria, p. 26. 



8 R. H. Mathews, Ethnological Notes, p. 17. 9 Bonney, J. A. /., vol. xiii, 



p. 125. 10 Palmer, loc. cit., p. 280; Fison and Howitt. Kamilaroi ard 



Kurnai, p. 190 ; Eylmann, loc. cit., p. 261 ; and Smyth, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 52. 

 11 Howitt, Native Tribes, p. 748. Howitt, loc. cit., p. 749. 13 Ibid., 



p. 749. " Ibid., p. 750. Ibid., p. 750. " Taplin, loc. cit., p. 12. 



17 Ibid., p. 14. 18 Meyer, loc. cit., p. 186. 19 Schiinnann, loc. cit., 



p. 223. 



K2 



