Note 102 — THE TWO SISTERS WHO ENVIED THEIR CADETTE.[98]

This ruthless attempt at infanticide was in accordance with the manners of the age nor has it yet disappeared from Rajput-land, China and sundry over-populous countries. Indeed it is a question if civilization may not be compelled to revive the law of Lycurgus which forbade a child, male or female, to be brought up without the approbation of public officers appointed ad hoc. One of the curses of the XIXth century is the increased skill of the midwife and the physician, who are now able to preserve worthless lives and to bring up semi-abortions whose only effect upon the breed is increased degeneracy. Amongst the Greeks and ancient Arabs the Malthusian practice was carried to excess. Poseidippus declares that in his day—

A man, although poor, will not expose his son;

But however rich, will not preserve his daughter.

See the commentators’ descriptions of the Wa’d al-Banát or burial of Mauúdát (living daughters), the barbarous custom of the pagan Arabs (Koran, chaps. xvi. and lxxxi.), one of the many abominations, like the murderous vow of Jephtha, to which Al-Islam put a summary stop. (Ibn Khallikan, iii. 609–616). For such outcast children reported to be monsters, see pp. 402–412 of Mr. Clouston’s “Asiatic and European versions of four of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales,” printed by the Chaucer Society.