INFANTICIDE. 
197 
and their daughters unto devils and shed innocent 
bloody even the blood of their sons and of their 
daughters^ whom they sacrificed unto the idols of 
Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood/” 
Infanticide is to this day practised among some of 
the ruder tribes of America; in New South Wales 
and in the South-sea islands; and wherever this prac- 
tice prevails, female children are the general victims ; 
yet it must be confessed that among the more savage 
races who destroy their children it commonly arises 
from a better principle than that which actuates the 
more civilized. The former almost invariably resort 
to this barbarous custom from a feeling of humanity; 
in order to remove their female offspring from the 
miseries of a destitute existence; for among all sa- 
vage or semi-barbarous communities the women are 
so emphatically the drudges of the men, that their 
lives are an absolute burden to them. Even in their 
adolescent years; when free from the slavery to which 
in their puberty they are hopelessly condemned; they 
have still only the sad prospect of wretchedness be- 
fore them ; and; so fully alive are mothers to the 
barrenness of their children’s joys; that they have been 
frequently known to destroy them in order to secure 
them from the hardships which they themselves un- 
dergo. But they never destroy their male offspring; 
knowing that these inherit the chances of a far more 
endurable condition. The Hindoo; however; has a 
much less rational excuse; as he puts his daughter 
to death merely to evade the penalties of an imaginary 
degradation. 
It is said that among the Rajpoots the child was 
s 3 
