[135] Sarasin, Ergebnisse naturwissenschaftlicher Forschungen auf Ceylon, iii. 469, 539.
[136] Bridges, in a letter dated Downeast, Tierra del Fuego, August 28th, 1888.
[137] Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 134 sqq. Cf. Farrer, Primitive Manners and Customs, p. 224; Sutherland, op. cit. i. 114 sq.
[138] Cf. Darwin, Descent of Man, p. 594.
[139] Powers, op. cit. p. 207. Cf. ibid. p. 183.
[140] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 249.
Where infanticide is not sanctioned by custom, the occasional commission of it has a tendency to call forth disapproval or excite horror. The Blackfeet are said to believe that women who have been guilty of this crime will never reach the happy mountain after death, but are compelled to hover round the seats of their crimes, with branches of trees tied to their legs.[141] Speaking of another North American tribe, the Potawatomis, Keating observes:—“In a few instances, it is said that children born deformed have been destroyed by their mothers, but these instances are rare, and whenever discovered, uniformly bring them into disrepute, and are not unfrequently punished by some of the near relations. Independently of these cases, which are but rare, a few instances of infanticide, by single women, in order to conceal intrigue, have been heard of; but they are always treated with abhorrence.”[142] Among the Omahas “parents had no right to put their children to death.”[143] The Aleuts believed that a child-murder would bring misfortune on the whole village.[144] The Brazilian Macusis[145] and Botocudos[146] look upon the deed with horror. At Ulea, of the Caroline Islands, “the prince would have the unnatural mother punished with death.”[147] So, too, Herr Valdau tells us of a Bakundu woman who, accused of infanticide, was condemned to death.[148] In Ashanti a man is punished for the murder of his child.[149] Among the Gaika tribe, of the Kafirs, the killing of a child after birth is punishable as murder, the fine going to the chief.[150] Nay, even peoples among whom infanticide is habitual seem now and then to have a feeling that the act is not quite correct. Mr. Brough Smyth asserts that the Australian Black is himself ashamed of it;[151] and Mr. Curr has no doubt that he feels, in the commencement of his career at least, that infanticide is wrong, as also that its committal brings remorse.[152]
[141] Richardson, in Franklin, Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, p. 77.
[142] Keating, op. cit. i. 99.
[143] Dorsey, in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 268.