[171] Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, p. 293.
[172] Ibid. p. 294.
[173] Koran, xvii. 33; also, ibid. vi. 141, 152, and lxxxi. 8 sq.
[174] See infra, on [Human Sacrifice].
The murder of female infants, whether by the direct employment of homicidal means, or by exposure to privation and neglect, has for ages been a common practice, or even a genuine custom, among various Hindu castes.[175] Yet they are well aware that it is prohibited by their sacred books; according to the Laws of Manu, the King shall put to death “those who slay women, infants, or Brâhmanas.”[176] Even the Rajputs, who—out of family pride and owing to the expenses connected with the marriage ceremony—were particularly addicted to infanticide, considered that a family in which such a deed had been perpetrated was, in consequence, an object of divine displeasure. On the twelfth day, therefore, the family priest was sent for, and, by suitable gratuities, absolution was obtained. In the room where the infant was born and destroyed, he also prepared and ate some food with which the family provided him; this was considered a hom, or burnt offering, and, by eating it in that place, the priest was supposed to take the whole hutteea, or sin, upon himself, and to cleanse the family from it.[177]
[175] Wilkins, Modern Hinduism, 431. Chevers, Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for India, p. 750 sqq.
[176] Laws of Manu, ix. 232.
[177] ‘Oude as it was before the Annexation,’ in Church Missionary Intelligencer, xi. 81 sq.
Exposure of new-born children was practised by the people of the Vedic age,[178] as also by other so-called Aryan peoples in ancient times.[179] The Teutonic father had to decide whether the child, whilst still lying on the ground, should be accepted as a member of the family, or whether it should be exposed. If he lifted it up, and some water was poured over it, or a drop of milk or honey passed its lips, it was generally safe. But apart from these restrictions, custom seems to have been in favour of exposure only under certain circumstances, exactly similar to those in which infanticide is practised among many modern savages: if the child was born out of wedlock, or if it was deformed or sickly, or if it was born on an unlucky day, or in case of twins—one of whom was always supposed to be illegitimate—or if the parents were very poor. The exposed infant, however, was not necessarily destined to die, but was, in many cases, adopted by somebody who could afford to rear it.[180]
[178] Kaegi, Rigveda, p. 16.