Christina, the Maid of the South Seas

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1811 edition. Excerpt: ... note 12. page 74. "Slaves to their superstition wild, "Th' Arreoy's will destroy my child! "With its first breath will seize their prize, "Unfather'd, unreveng'd it dies!" "All that I could make out of this strange ceremony was, that the Arreoys are highly respected, and that the society is chiefly composed of men distinguished by their valor, or some other merit, and that great trust and confidence is reposed in them; I learnt from Tinah, in talking about his children, that his first-born child was killed as soon as it came into the world, he being then an Arreoy; but before his second child was born, he quitted the society. Such of the natives as-I conversed with about the institution of so extraordinary a society as the Arreoy, 2 asserted that it was necessary, to prevent an over population. Worrow, worrow, no te my didde, worrow, worrow, te tata: we have too many children, and too many men, was their constant excuse; yet it does not appear, that they are apprehensive of too great an increase of the lower class of people, none of them being ever admitted into the Arreoy society. The most remarkable instance related to me of the barbarity of this institution, was of Teppahoo, the Earie of the district of Tettaha, and his wife Tetteehowdeeah, who is sister to Otow, and considered as a person of the first consequence; I was told that they have had eight children, every one of which was destroyed as soon as born. That any human beings were ever so devoid of natural affection, as not to wish to preserve alive one of so many children, is incredible; it is more reasonable to conclude, that the death of these infants was not an act of choice in the parents, but that they were sacrificed in compliance with some barbarous superstition, with...