160 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
in motive and end, as well as in the manner of effecting it, 
which appear among communities the most remote, and in 
many respects dissimilar, from each other. 
The South Sea islanders seem to have been much more 
addicted to infanticide than the Malagasy; the chief cause 
of its perpetration by the former was pride, and their 
abominable licentiousness; to some extent, however, they 
were influenced by the motives which operated on the 
latter—the sanctions of their heartless superstitions, and the 
desire to avoid the trouble of taking care of their offspring. 
The mode also of accomplishing their purpose was fre¬ 
quently the same, but there was one peculiar feature in 
the infanticide of the South Sea islanders, from which the 
Malagasy were exempt; among the latter, no distinction 
appears to have been made on account of sex ; both appear 
to have been alike exposed to the merciless decisions of 
the astrologers. Among the former, the relentless deed 
was regulated frequently by considerations that tended to 
destroy the female sex, and add to the atrocity of the 
crime. A far grearer number of females than of males were 
destroyed by the islanders, and often the circumstance 
which decided the guilty parties in the accomplishment of 
their purpose, before undetermined, was the fact that the 
innocent victim was a female. 
The infant which a barbarous and sanguinary super¬ 
stition has spared to the Malagasy parents, is cherished 
with indulgent tenderness; its aliment is supplied, with 
exceedingly rare exceptions, from its mother’s breast; and 
it is generally nursed by a grandmother, or some other 
relative. The mothers in Madagascar often suckle their 
children for several years; the latter thus continue “ chil¬ 
dren at the breast” after they are able to walk, and may 
often be seen running after their mothers, and, without 
