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Among the barbarous people of Guyana, as well 

 as those of the half-civilized islands of the South 

 sea, young wives will not become mothers. If 

 they have children, their offspring are exposed 

 not only to the dangers of savage life, but also 

 to other dangers arising from the strangest po- 

 pular prejudices. When twins are born, false 

 notions of propriety and family honor require, 

 that one of them should be destroyed. u To 

 bring twins into the world, is to be exposed to 

 public scorn ; it is to resemble rats, opossums^ 

 and the vilest animals, which bring forth a great 

 number of young at a time." Nay, more : " two 

 children born at the same time cannot belong to 

 the same father." This is an axiom of physio- 

 logy of the Salivas ; and in every zone, and in 

 different states of society, when the vulgar seize 

 upon an axiom, they adhere to it with more 

 stedfastness than the better informed men, by 

 whom it was first hazarded. To avoid a disturb- 

 ance of conjugal tranquillity, the old female re- 

 lations of the mother, or the mure japoic-nei 

 (midwives), take care, that one of the twins shall 

 disappear. If the new-born infant, though not 

 a twin, have any physical deformity, the father 

 instantly puts it to death. They will have only 

 robust and well-made children, for deformities 

 indicate some influence of the evil spirit Iolo- 

 quiamo, or the bird Tikitiki, the enemy of the 

 human race. Sometimes children of a feeble 



