Among a great number of uncivilised peoples it is usual to kill an infant if it is a bastard,[74] or if its mother dies,[75] or if it is deformed or diseased,[76] or if there is anything unusual or uncanny about it, or if it for some reason or other is regarded as an unlucky child. In some parts of Africa, for instance, a child who is born with teeth,[77] or who cuts the upper front teeth before the under,[78] or whose teeth present some other kind of irregularity,[79] is put to death. Among the natives of the Bondei country a child who is born head first is considered an unlucky child, and is strangled in consequence.[80] The Kamchadales used to destroy children who were born in very stormy weather;[81] and in Madagascar infants born in March or April, or in the last week of a month, or on a Wednesday or a Friday, were exposed or drowned or buried alive.[82] Among various savages it is the custom that, if a woman gives birth to twins, one or both of them are destroyed.[83] They are regarded sometimes as an indication of unfaithfulness on the part of the mother—in accordance with the notion that one man cannot be the father of two children at the same time[84]—sometimes as an evil portent or as the result of the wrath of a fetish.[85] Miss Kingsley observes, "There is always the sense of there being something uncanny regarding twins in West Africa, and in those tribes where they are not killed they are regarded as requiring great care to prevent them from dying on their own account.”[86] The Kafirs believe that unless the father places a lump of earth in the mouth of one of the babies he will lose his strength.[87]
[74] Turner, Samoa, p. 304 (Savage Islanders). Elton, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvii. 93 (some Solomon Islanders). Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 145 (Beduan). Dyveyrier, Exploration du Sahara, p. 428 (Touareg). Burton, Sindh, p. 244 (Belochis). Haberland, ‘Der Kindermord als Volkssitte,’ in Globus, xxxvii. 58. The natives of Australia often kill half-caste children (Roth, Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines, p. 184. Curr, Recollections of Squatting in Victoria, p. 252. Haberland, loc. cit. p. 58).
[75] Collins, English Colony in New South Wales, i. 607 sq. (aborigines of Port Jackson). Dale, ‘Natives inhabiting the Bondei Country,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxv. 182. Comte de Cardi, ‘Ju-Ju Laws and Customs in the Niger Delta,’ ibid. xxix. 58. Nansen, First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 330; Holm, ‘Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,’ in Meddelelser om Grönland, x. 91 (Greenlanders). Haberland, loc. cit. p. 28 sq. Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 252, 254, 258 sq. Chamberlain, Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought, p. 110 sq.
[76] Dawson, op. cit. p. 39 (tribes of Western Victoria). Kicherer, quoted by Moffat, Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa, p. 15 (Bushmans). Shooter, Kafirs of Natal, p. 89. Chapman, Travels in the Interior of South Africa, ii. 285 (Banamjua). Reade, Savage Africa, p. 244 (Equatorial Africans). New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa, p. 118; Krapf, Travels, p. 193 sq. (Wanika). Georgi, Russia, iii. 134 (Kamchadales). Sarytschew, loc. cit. vi. 50; von Wrangell, op. cit. p. 122 (Chukchi). Simpson, quoted by Murdoch, ‘Point Barrow Expedition,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 417 (Eskimo). Powers, Tribes of California, p. 382 (Yokuts). Guinnard, Three Years’ Slavery among the Patagonians, p. 144. Haberland, loc. cit. p. 58 sq. Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 252, 254, 255, 258.
[77] Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 257, 259.
[78] Livingstone, Missionary Travels, p. 577. Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, p. 472. Allen and Thomson, Expedition to the River Niger, i. 243 sq. Mockler-Ferryman, British Nigeria, p. 286 (Ibos).
[79] Baumann, Usambara, pp. 131 (Wabondei), 237 (Wapare).
[80] Dale, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxv. 183.
[81] Krasheninnikoff, History of Kamschatka, p. 217.
[82] Ploss, Das Kind, ii. 257. Cf. Little, Madagascar, p. 60.