he other hand, regarded
abortion and infanticide as heathen abominations. Both are
forbidden in the "Two Ways," sec. 2. In the laws of the German
nations the mother was treated as entitled to decide whether she
would bear a child. Abortion produced on her by another was a
crime, but not when she produced it on herself. Only in the law
of the West Goths was abortion by the mother made criminal,
because it was the view that the state was injured.[929] In
modern Hungary, at a marriage, the desire to have no children is
expressed by a number of ancient and futile usages to prevent
child bearing for years, or altogether. Abortion is practiced
throughout Hungary by women of all the nationalities. Women
rejoice to be barren, and it is not thought creditable to have an
infant within two or three years of marriage.[930] Nevertheless
the birth rate is very high (thirty-nine per thousand).

+324. Illustrations of infanticide.+ The Australians practiced
infanticide almost universally. A woman could not carry two
children. Therefore, if she had one who could not yet march, and
bore another, the latter was killed. One or both twins were
killed. The native men killed half-white children.[931]
Australian life was full of privations on account of limited
supplies of food and water. The same conditions made wandering a
necessity. If a woman had two infants, she could not accompany
her husband.[932] One reporter says that the fate of a child
"depended much on the condition the country was in at the time
(drought, etc.), and the prospect of the mother's rearing it
satisfactorily."[933] Sickly and imperfect children were killed
because they would require very great care. The first one was
also killed because they thought it immature and not worth
preserving.[934] Very generally it was eaten that the mother
might recover the strength which she had given to it.[935] If
there was an older child, he ate of it, in the belief that he
might gain strength. Very rarely were more than four children of
one woman allowed to grow up.[936] Curr[937] says that before the
whites came women bore, on an average, six children each, and
that, as a rule, they reared two boys and a girl, the maximum
being ten. All authorities agree that if children were spared at
birth they were treated with great affection. On the Andaman
Islands infanticide was u