98 JEALOUSIES AND QUARRELS 
their own existence, or to that of their helpless 
offspring, though hanging upon the breast, or 
even before the birth. The quarrels of the women 
have very often been the cause of infanticide; 
which at one time, through jealousy, existed to an 
alarming extent in this country. It has been my 
painful lot to be an eye-witness of several cases 
of infanticide, the mother being the destroyer of 
her own child. I have sefen the helpless infant 
strangled in a moment, and then cast into the 
sea, or thrown to the dogs or the pigs. Not un- 
frequently, a few days after its birth, has the little 
sleeping baby been enclosed in the death-grasp of 
an infuriated woman, who, but for the jealousy 
which raged within, would have given her own 
life to save that of her infant.^ A further evil 
attendant upon polygamy, and arising out of the 
quarrels and jealousy of the women, is, that their 
tales are carried, much exaggerated, to other 
tribes, and to other parties connected in some 
measure with the aggrieved person. This gives 
rise to angry feelings among the people ; an op- 
portunity presents itself, in a sham-fight, or at a 
feast, to strike a harder or more home-blow than 
is usual upon such occasions; — the man retaliates ; 
a severe scuffle ensues ; some are wounded; and all 
retire to their homes, vowing revenge, and cherish- 
ing a hostile feeling towards each other, which 
* It is not true, as represented in a recent publication, that 
New-Zealand mothers eat their own children. This is too 
horrible, even for them I 
