y common. If a malformed child is
born, it and the mother are killed. The nations raid each other
to get slaves or cannibal food.[918] These citations seem to
represent the general usage throughout the Pacific islands.

+322.+ Oviedo said of the women "of the main land" of South
America, when first discovered, that they practiced abortion in
order not to spoil their bodies by child bearing.[919] The
Kadiveo of Paraguay are perishing largely through abortion by the
women, who will not bear more than one child each.[920] They are
a subdivision of the Guykurus, who were reported sixty or seventy
years ago to be decreasing in number from this cause. The women,
"until they are thirty, procure abortion, to free themselves from
the privations of pregnancy and the trouble of bringing up
children."[921] Martius[922] gave as additional reasons, that the
tribe lived largely on horseback, and the women did not want to
be hindered by greater difficulties in this life, nor did they
want to be left behind by their husbands. The Indians of the
plains of North America were driven to similar limitations. "It
has long been the custom that a woman should not have a second
child until her first is ten years old."[923] Infants interfere
very seriously with their mode of life.

Neither abortion nor infanticide is customary in the Horn of
Africa unless it be in time of famine.[924] In South Africa
abortion is a common custom.[925] Abortion and infanticide are so
nearly universal in savage life, either as egoistic policy or
group policy, that exceptions to the practice of these vices are
noteworthy phenomena.

+323. Abortion renounced.+ In ancient India abortion came to be
ranked with the murder of a Brahmin as the greatest crimes.[926]
Plato's idea of right was that men over fifty-five, and women
over forty, ought not to procreate citizens. By either abortion
or infanticide all offspring of such persons should be
removed.[927] Aristotle also thought that imperfect children
should be put to death, and that the numbers should be limited.
If parents exceeded the prescribed number, abortion should be
employed.[928] These two philosophers evidently constructed their
ideals on the mores already established amongst the Greeks, and
their ethical doctrines are only expressions of approval of the
mores in which they lived. The Jews, on t