nknown.[938] It was not common on New
Zealand. Boys were wanted as warriors, girls as breeders.[939] A
missionary reports a case in New Guinea where the parents of a
sickly, peevish child, probably teething, calmly decided to kill
it.[940] In British New Guinea there is more or less infanticide,
the father strangling the infant at birth to avoid care and
trouble. Daughters are preserved by preference because of the
bride price which the father will get for them.[941] On Nukuoro
the civil ruler decides long before a birth whether the child is
to be allowed to live or not. If the decision is adverse, it is
smothered at birth.[942] On the Banks Islands girls are
preferred, because the people have the mother family, and because
of the marriageable value of girls.[943] On the Murray Islands in
Torres Straits all children beyond a prescribed number are put to
death, "lest the food supply should become insufficient." "If the
children were all of one sex, some were destroyed from shame, it
being held proper to have an equal number of boys and
girls."[944] On some islands of the Solomon group infanticide is
not practiced, except in cases of illegitimate births. On others
the coast people kill their own children and buy grown-up
children from the bush people of the interior, that being an
easier way to get them.[945] There is no infanticide on Samoa.
The unmarried employ abortion.[946] Throughout Polynesia
infanticide was prevalent for social selection, all of mixed
blood or caste being put to death. Only two boys in a family were
allowed to live, but any number of girls.[947] In Tahiti they
killed girls, who were of no use for war, service of the god,
fishing, or navigation.[948] The Malagassans on Madagascar kill
all children who are born on unlucky days.[949]

+325.+ The women of the Pima (Arizona) practice infanticide,
because, if their husbands die, they will be poor and will have
to provide by their own exertions for such children as they
have.[950] All Hyperboreans practice infanticide on account of
the difficulty of the food supply.[951]

+326.+ The Bondei of West Africa strangle an infant at birth if
any of the numerous portents and omens for which they watch are
unfavorable. An infant is also killed if its upper teeth come
first.[952] Until very recently it was customary in parts of
Ahanta for the tenth c