1 08 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF 



At the birth of a child, the priest gives it a name, at the request of 

 the father ; but if the infant should be taken sick soon afterwards, the 

 first name is abandoned, and another adopted, in hopes that it may 

 prove a more fortunate one ; for they believe that the illness may be 

 owing to its name. It is very common to call a child after its grand- 

 father. 



A woman has seldom more than two, and never more than three 

 living children. After the birth of a third, they consider it necessary 

 to prevent the increase of their families, and resort to that most 

 unnatural means, a systematic abortion. So soon as a woman be- 

 lieves herself to be enceinte for the third or fourth time, she deter- 

 mines that the offspring shall not survive, and calls in the aid of an 

 experienced midwife to destroy it, who effects the purpose by external 

 pressure on the abdomen or back, and though not unattended with 

 much pain and difficulty to the mother, the operation rarely proves 

 fatal. This practice is looked upon without any sort of horror or 

 shame, being considered as a necessary and proper means to prevent 

 their families from becoming so large as to be a burden to them, and 

 not because the island might become over-peopled, for this latter 

 idea does not seem ever to have occurred to them. The practice of 

 destroying the foetus is universal among the unmarried females, but 

 children are never destroyed after birth. According to Wood, this 

 custom does not prevail at Makin. 



There are professed tattooers, who are held in great estimation, 

 and receive very high prices; this confines the art to the wealthy 

 and those of rank. The young men are not tattooed before the age 

 of twenty, and slaves never. The tattooing is mostly in short oblique 

 lines, about the eighth of an inch apart. These are arranged in 

 perpendicular rows, of which there are four or five down the back 

 on each side of the spine, with a similar marking in front, beginning 

 just below the collar-bone. The legs also are marked. 



The women are tattooed in the same manner, but not so much as 

 the men. Owing to the lightness of the lines, and the distance 

 between them, they do not show very conspicuously. The colouring 

 matter used is charcoal, mixed with cocoanut-oil. The instrument 

 employed is a piece of bone, cut like a fine-toothed comb, similar to 

 that \ased at the Samoan Group. The tattooing is done at different 

 times, to alleviate the pain which attends the operation. 



Of all their customs, the funeral ceremonies are the most remark- 



