recital of all the horrid details, through which we have been reluctantly compelled to wade in the prosecution of our researches on this painful subject. A single instance may suffice to show to what degree the refinement of maternal cruelty can extend, when woman's purest and noblest sentiments are extinguished by her social degradation. Among the Rajpoots of India, this crime is exceedingly prevalent, and all the humane efforts of the British government to abolish it, have met with greater resistance from the mothers than from the fathers of the children. To shade the horrible picture with one deeper tint, we are informed by a late female traveller, that the poison with which the child is destroyed, is rubbed upon the mother's nipple, and thus, those "sacred fountains of the human race," whence the helpless infant was destined to draw his nourishment, and strength and life, become the polluted instruments of crime and death.* With this account of the character of savage woman before us, we are better prepared to look at its cause, her social and domestic condition, the best example of which may be drawn from one of our own North American tribes. The Hon. Mr. Murray, one of the latest and most interesting because most truthful of the British travellers who have visited our shores, thus describes the daily occupations of a Pawnee female, when her tribe or village is on the march from one hunting ground to another. "She rises an hour before daylight, packs up the dried meat, the corn and other bales, strikes the tent, loads and saddles all the horses and mules, and at dawn the march commences; they generally go from 12 to 15 miles before the mid-day heat; the husband rides, some animals are loaded, many run loose; she travels on foot, carrying on her back either a child or a package of considerable size, in one hand a bundle or a can of water, with the other leading one or two pack horses. On arriving at the camping place she unpacks the animals, and proceeds to pitch the tent or lodge. But in order to appreciate the extreme labor of this apparently simple operation, it must be borne in mind, that she has to force 8 or 10 poles sharpened at the point, into ground baked nearly as hard as brick by a vertical sun; There is a tradition among this tribe that one of the Rajpoots began the practice of female infanticide in consequence of an ancient prophecy that through a female the succession to the crown would pass out of the family. But this is merely a tradition. There is no doubt that the custom found its origin in the burdensome expenses attending the support and marriage of girls, and was excused if not sanctioned by the low estimate placed in India upon the female character. they require to be driven at least six inches deep by the mere strength of her arms, as she is not assisted by the use of any iron pointed instrument or any mallet. As soon as the tent is pitched and arranged, she goes in search of wood and water; the latter is generally within half a mile of the camping place selected, but the former I can positively affirm from my own observation, she frequently has to seek and carry on her back three or four miles. "From mingled commiseration and curiosity, I have once or twice raised these wood bundles thus brought in, and am afraid to hazard a conjecture at their weight, but I feel confident that any London porter would charge high for an extra load, if he was desired to carry one of them half a mile; she then proceeds to light a fire, cut up the meat and pound the corn, for which latter purpose she is obliged to use a heavy club round at the extremity, and a mortar hollowed by herself from the trunk of a walnut. As soon as the meal is finished, she has to strike the tent, reload the horses, and the whole foregoing work is to be repeated, except that the afternoon walk is generally not more than eight miles. "This is the ordinary routine of a travelling day; but on the day of a hunt, and on its successor, her labor varies in kind, not much in degree, as besides bringing wood and water, cooking, &c, she has to cut up all the meat into thin flakes or layers to be dried in the sun, to dress the skins and robes, to make the moccasins, leggins, and in short whatever clothing is wanted by any of the family. Lest it may be supposed that in the permanent or winter lodge they enjoy more rest, it is as well to mention, that in addition to their domestic duties, the whole of the agricultural labor in their coarse system of raising maize falls to their share."* Thus betrothed a slave, and treated throughout her matrimonial life as a slave and a drudge, is it either strange or unnatural that the Indian female seldom knows the proper feelings of a wife or mother? But happily for the honor of human nature, if we look back some eighteen centuries, we shall discover a race of barbarians who offer a remarkable exception to this general depravity of savage life. We allude to the ancient Germanic tribes, a race peculiarly interesting to us, as furnishing in their speech and government, the first germs of the English language and constitution. From the admirable descriptions of their manners and customs which have been given to us by Cæsar and Tacitus, we may readily make ourselves acquainted with the state of the female sex among them. Though their love of enterprize and plunder, their indomitable courage in war, and their sensuality and sloth in * Travels in North America in 1834-35-36, vol. i., p. 219–220. time of peace, afford us a remarkable evidence of the general uniformity of savage life, they nevertheless exhibit instances of generosity, humanity and virtue, which mark a wide difference between them and the modern Indians and South Sea Islanders of whom we have already spoken. Notwithstanding that they were in fact nomadic tribes, they cultivated the earth for its productions, and kept flocks and herds to supply them with food and clothing, not depending, as savages usually do, upon hunting and fishing alone, for a precarious subsistence. Poetry had elevated itself among them to something like a respectable rank, for they had a separate class called bards whose duty it was to recite in rude and unpolished strains, the military songs with which they inflamed the ardour of their warriors and in which they recounted the deeds of former heroes. They admitted the distinction of ranks in government, attempted a species of military discipline, had an order of priesthood, established a system of rewards and punishments, and were in short, in possession of many of those political improvements and practised many of those social virtues which indicated, if not a near approach to civilization, at least the existence of considerable refinement in savage life. Now, in such a state of society, what was the condition of the women? Undoubtedly one as different from that of the American squaw, as the state of the German barbarian differed from that of the American Indian. The influence of the female had here advanced a step. She was no longer the beast of burthen. She had become in some sort the participant of her husband's councils,-the sharer of his dangers, and the applauder of his prowess. The connubial state was one of constancy and affection. The virtues of the wife were respected and preserved. Polygamy was not encouraged and but few instances of it existed. The bride brought no dowry to her husband, but the bridegroom presented her, not with dresses and decorations that might feed her vanity, but with horses, with oxen, with weapons and a shield. She in her turn bestowed upon her lover, a gift of arms, and by this mutual interchange of kindness, the marriage ceremonies were concluded. She was taught that, in entering into the connubial state, she was to become the associate of her husband's labours and his dangers; that with him she was to suffer in peace and dare in war. This equality of rank, produced its certain and necessary result. With one husband, says the Roman historian,* as with one body and one soul the woman lived content; in him her happiness was centered; her desires extended no further, and there existed at once a respect for the married state, and a reverence for her husband's person. It is painful to leave this pastoral picture of domestic happiness, which, like a green oasis of the desert, sheds the fragrance of its beauty over the dark scenes of degradation we have already witnessed. But we must turn to a semi-barbarous nation of our own day, and view woman once more debased to the level of a slave. The Chinese, who are perhaps the vainest and most arrogant people that ever existed, and who, while in the exuberance of their self-esteem, they have but one word to signify a demon, a barbarian and a stranger, present, at the same time, the remarkable and humiliating instance of a nation which, in eighteen hundred years, has made no alteration in its customs, no improvement in the arts or sciences, and not one advance in civilization, exhibit the proof of their degradation in the rank allotted to their females in society. In China woman has always been treated with marked contempt. Her employments are the most dishonorable; her feelings and affections are never consulted; and the sum of all her duties, as laid down by the sages of the Celestial Empire, is implicit obedience. As a bride she is a saleable commodity; her marriage is a mere matter of bargain and traffic, in the conclusion of which she is entirely passive. The tiny feet of the Chinese ladies, which have been so much the envy of western belles, by making her a cripple, ensure her security as a prisoner, and the malformation is actually produced simply for the purpose of more certainly confining her to the house. Female infanticide is with them a crime of every day occurrence, and when reproved for its commission by Europeans, their answer, according to Mr. Roberts, a sensible traveller among them, is, "It is only a female." The birth of a daughter in China is a source of grief and mortification to its relatives. Pan-hio * Sic unum accipiunt maritum, (says Tacitus,) quo modo unum corpus, unamque vitam, ne ulla cogitatio ultra, ne longior cupiditas, ne tanquam maritum, sed tanquam matrimonium ament.— De Mor. Germ. c. xix. The same sanctity of marriage existed among the Saxons, the Visigoths, the Vinedians and many other nations whom the divorce loving Romans called barbarians. ny-pan one of their historians, (herself a female,) has thus described the reception of a female infant into the world by its disappointed parents. "Anciently the female infant was thrown upon some old rags by the side of its mother's bed, and for three days was scarcely spoken or thought of. At the end of that time, it was carried to a temple by the father, accompanied by attendants with bricks and tiles. The bricks and tiles," says the annalist, in her commentary on this fact, "signify the contempt and suffering which are to be her companions and her portion; bricks are of no use except to form enclosures and to be trodden under foot; tiles are useless except when they are exposed to the air." When a daughter is born, says one of their venerable books, "When a daughter is born She is incapable of either evil or good." The last assertion they thus explain: "If she does ill she is not a woman; if she does well she is not a woman; a slavish submission is her duty and her highest praise.' Now what has been the result of such opinions and such treatment on the character and condition of the Chinese female? Precisely what was to have been expected according to our theory. They have no enjoyments if wealthy, and labor incessantly if poor. Mere cyphers in society, they vegetate rather than live. They are without education, without companionship; pale and emaciated from their constant captivity, they spend their hours in sleep, in listless idleness or in the embellishment of their persons, save when poverty, that unrelenting task-master, drives them to the performance of the most menial and laborious occupations. Thus far we have enquired into the condition of the female among savage and barbarous nations, and we have found it with one bright exception a servile and degraded one. And the cause of this oppression is as evident as its effects. In savage society physical strength and personal prowess are the only bases of power and the only object of respect. It is the tendency of the civilized state to equalize the condition of the sexes, because there the force of mind and energy of intellect overcome the influence of |