THE EEGULATION OP NUMBERS 221 



When that age is reached, the man is likely to go with his wife 

 and child to some large dance or public gathering, and there ... to 

 announce publicly that now this child is going to have a little 

 brother or sister.' l There is sometimes evidence, for instance 

 among the Sioux 2 and the Brazilian tribes, 3 that abortion is 

 committed after consultation with the husband. Among the Pima 

 Indians ' sometimes a mother nursed a child until it was six or 

 seven years old, and if she became pregnant in the meantime she 

 induced abortion '. 4 In Fiji there was no cohabitation until the 

 child was two years old. ' This separation . . . was in bygone times 

 invariably enforced ' and abortion was practised when there had 

 been enough children. 5 Speaking also of Fiji Seeman says that 

 ' relatives of a woman take it as a public insult if a child should 

 be born before the customary three or four years have elapsed, 

 and they consider themselves in duty bound to avenge it in an 

 equally public manner '. 6 Similarly Gutmann says of the Wad- 

 schagga that it is considered most disgraceful if a woman, who is 

 still suckling a two years child, again becomes a mother, and that 

 in consequence abortion is frequent. 7 In German New Guinea, 

 according to Krieger, only three children are as a rule brought up 

 owing to a fear of scarcity of food. 8 In Eadeck ' every mother 

 is allowed to bring up only three children; every fourth and 

 succeeding one she is obliged to bury alive herself '. 9 Infanti- 

 cide was ordered by law in Vaitapu and not more than two 

 children were allowed in a family. 10 Of the Roro-speaking 

 tribes of New Guinea we are told that ' formerly it was not 

 customary for a woman to have children until her garden 

 was bearing well '. n In the New Hebrides ' infanticide was 

 sadly prevalent. As the burden of plantation and other work 

 devolved on the woman, she thought she could not attend 

 to more than two or three children, and that the rest must 

 be buried as soon as born.' 12 In the New Britain group * after 

 marriage children are not borne by the woman for a period of from 

 two to four years. I am informed that this is the result of a popular 

 dislike to speedily becoming a mother on the part of the women, 



1 Grinnell, loc. cit., p. 15. 2 Keating, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 394. 3 Ehren- 



reich, loc. cit., p. 27. 4 Russell, 26th A. R. B. E., p. 186. 5 Blyth, 



loc. cit., p. 181. 6 Seeman, Viti, p. 191. 7 Gutmann, loc. cit., p. 3. 



8 Krieger, loc. cit., p. 165. See also Parkinson, loc. cit., p. 22. ' Kotzebue, 



loc. cit., vol. iii, p. 173. 10 Turner, Samoa, p. 284. " Seligman, Melane- 



sians, p. 270. 12 Turner, Samoa, p. 333. According to Paton, loc. cit., p. 452, 



infanticide was ' systematically practised '. 



