Ch. iii. lowest Stage of Human Society '. 31 



" this woman in the morning, a short time before 

 " she was delivered."* 



Women treated in this brutal manner must 

 necessarily be subject to frequent miscarriages, 

 and it is probable that the abuse of very young 

 irirls, mentioned above as common, and the too 

 early union of the sexes in general, would tend to 

 prevent the females from being prolific. Instances 

 of a plurality of wives were found more frequent 

 than of a single wife ; but what is extraordinary, 

 Mr. Collins did not recollect ever to have noticed 

 children by more than one. He had heard from 

 some of the natives, that the first wife claimed an 

 exclusive right to the conjugal embrace, while the 

 second was merely the slave and drudge ofboth.t 



An absolutely exclusive right in the first wife 

 to the conjugal embrace seems to be hardly pro- 

 bable ; but it is possible that the second wife may 

 not be allowed to rear her offspring. At any rate, 

 if the observation be generally true, it proves that 

 many of the women are without children, which 

 can only be accounted for from the very severe 

 hardships which they undergo, or from some par- 

 ticular customs which may not have come to the 

 knowledge of Mr. Collins. 



If the mother of a sucking child die, the help- 

 less infant is buried alive in the same grave with 

 its mother. The father himself places his living- 

 child on the body of his dead wife, and having 



* Collins's New South Wales, Appeu. note, p. 5G2. 

 f kl. Appen. p. 560. 



