CHARACTER. 389 



were ejected from the association ; the woman being known 

 from that time as a " bearer of children/' which was among 

 this extraordinary people a term of reproach. The existence 

 of such a society shows how fundamentally the idea of virtue 

 may differ in different countries. Yet the married women were 

 faithful to their husbands, and beautifully modest. It is impos- 

 sible, indeed, to acquit even them of the charge of infanticide, 

 for which we may find a cause, though not an excuse. I do not 

 allude to the curious law that a child, as soon as it was born, 

 inherited the titles, rank, and property of its father, so that a 

 man who was yesterday a chief might be thus at once reduced 

 to the condition of a private person ; nor to the fact that any 

 Arreoy who spared her infant was at once excluded from 

 that society. We cannot suppose that such customs were 

 without their effect ; but a more powerful reason may per- 

 haps be found in the fact, that their numbers were already 

 large, the means of subsistence limited, and that as but few 

 were carried off either by disease or in war, the population 

 would soon have outgrown their supplies, if some means were 

 not taken to check the natural increase of numbers.* How- 

 ever this may be, infanticide appears to have been dreadfully 

 prevalent amongst them. It has been estimated that two- 

 thirds of the children were destroyed by their own parents, f 

 and both Mr. Nott and Mr. Ellis agree that during the whole 

 of their residence in the island, until the adoption of Christi- 

 anity, they did not know a single case of a mother who had 

 not been guilty of this crime. 



According to Wilson, J their language contained no word for 

 " thanks," and even Cook admits that they had no respect for 

 old age. Fitzroy goes still farther, and assures us that "they 

 scrupled not to destroy their aged or sick yes, even their 

 parents, if disabled by age or sickness." No such accuea- 



* See, for instance, Kotzebue's New Voyage, vol. i., p. 308. 



f Ellis, vol. i., pp. 334, 336. J I.e. p. 365. I.e. Vol. ii. p. 551. 



