Note 251-2 — Chapter II

In lower Nerbudda, the poisoning of new born female children was very common about the beginning of this century. In Kutch, people prefer to marry persons from foreign countries, and murder their own daughters. (Ritter, VI, 623, 1054.) Similarly, even in the Indian Arcadia, the land of the Nilgherrys (V, 1035 seq.). In Cashmir, all the beautiful girls are sold in the Punjab and in India from their eighth year upwards. (VII, 78.) Similarly in the Caucasus and in the mountainous region of Badakschan. (VII, 798 ff.) v. Haxthausen, Transkaukasia,[TN 101] 1856, I, ch. 1, tells how the Russians captured a vessel carrying Circassian slaves into Turkey. They left them their choice, to go back home, marry in Russia, or to continue their journey to Constantinople. They all unhesitatingly chose the last! There is an echo of something analogous even in the Semiramis saga.