After questioning the mother the “evil spirit” took the form of bananas and mushrooms, on which she had been bringing up the three weeks’ infant! Feeding bottles were an unknown luxury, and, as no equivalent had been invented, babies were compelled to lap from the hand, an art they never properly learned and thrived on very poorly. Some three dozen india rubber “comforters” were sent out to me, and these I managed to fix on empty ink bottles or medicine bottles, and so a new fashioned “Allenbury feeder” was introduced. The demand far exceeded the supply, so they could only be lent out by the month.[5]

Strangely enough the birth of twins seems to be regarded with horror or disgust, or at least as a misfortune, in almost all lands where Christ, the Lover of children, is not known. In some parts of Africa the little twin babies are stuffed into a pot and thrown into the woods to die, and their mother is considered disgraced for life or sent into exile. A missionary of the Church Missionary Society of London tells us that in West Africa the idea is that by the law of God human births should be single; therefore, if a mother has twins, she has been degraded to the level of a beast, the children are also beasts, and their death is necessary in order to preserve the human race pure and to prevent misfortune. Japanese fathers will not let a little child look into a mirror and see its double, for fear that when grown it will be unfortunate enough to have twins!

As there is no phase of life that Christian missions cannot touch and change, so among some of the African West Coast tribes, as the people have learned of Christianity, twin murder has been abandoned along with human sacrifice, though even harder to eradicate.

Were twin murder alone prevalent among non-Christian races, it would be reason enough for earnest effort and prayer on the part of every Christian mother in the world until it could be stamped out. But the crime of infanticide is so frightfully prevalent in China, India, and the Pacific Islands that it is a loud challenge to Christian parents to bring into darkened hearts and homes the knowledge of Him who considered it a capital offense even to “cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

In very few cases do we read of infanticide being practiced at the present time on boy babies. Twin murder as mentioned above, the killing in Central Africa of “monstrosities” who have been born with a tooth cut, or who cut their upper teeth first, and the putting away of illegitimate children among some Mohammedans, seem to be almost the only exceptions to this rule. The poor little girl babies, not wanted, not welcomed, considered a disgrace and an expense, must again and again pay the penalty for being girls with their lives.

“Why should the girl live?” the Pacific Islander would say to the early missionaries, “She cannot poise the spear, she cannot wield the club.”[6]

Rev. E. Storrow has made a careful study of the causes of infanticide in India, and his conclusions are worthy of our attention.

Our knowledge, at the best imperfect, is confined to the present century, the period of British supremacy.

Three causes have led to it:—

1. Great moral laxity, combined with indifference to infantine life, and a desire to conceal wrong doing, which the privacy of native habits renders comparatively easy.

2. Religious fanaticism has led to the crime in restricted areas....

3. But infanticide, springing out of disappointment at the birth of girls, because of their assumed inferiority to boys, the lowering of the family repute, and the inevitable expense demanded by usage on their marriage, chiefly requires our attention; because it grew into a system which was hardly concealed, and became prevalent in Rajputana, Gujarat, Cutch, and other great districts in Central and Western India....

The little ones were usually destroyed immediately after birth.... The reasons for such a usage, widely established among such people, and perpetuated through many generations, are worthy of close attention.

Cruelty is not a Hindu characteristic.... But the people are callous and apathetic. They would not deliberately inflict suffering and take pleasure in it, but they would not move hand or foot to rescue such as were greatly suffering.... This goes far to explain the unchallenged prevalence for ages of such atrocities as suttee and infanticide....

“A mother of sons” is one of the highest compliments that can be paid to a wife; “a mother of daughters” is one of the most contemptuous and scornful of all terms of reproach. This explains the gladness with which the birth of sons is welcomed, the disappointment manifest at the birth of daughters, and the disposition to put them away....

But whilst these were the causes generally operative, there were two special ones, which were influential among the haughty, high-caste Rajputs and kindred tribes—the difficulty of procuring suitable husbands for their daughters, when the customary age for marriage arrived; with the supposed disgrace of having unmarried daughters, and the difficulty of defraying the heavy expenses which usage demands....

Happily, the crime is abating through the persistent action of the government, and yet more because of that great wave of renewed opinion and sentiment passing over the people. But that this crime is yet frequent, and the law evaded, is evident.[7]

Was there a dry eye in the auditorium at Northfield when Mrs. James Cochran, only a few weeks before her death, told of the little girl babies in China who are thrown out to die? All could feel the throbbing love of her mother heart as she told the story in such simple words to the hundreds of young women gathered before her. Who among them could ever again be guiltless if she did not do her share towards saving the baby girls of China? Listen to her words:[8]

Confucianism wants no little girls, for they are of no use. It is very nice to have one or two, but in the part of China from which I come it is absolutely a custom, if there are more than two or three, to murder the others in some horrible way. One night one of my pupils came to my class very soberly. At first she whispered to the women about her and then they began to whisper to each other. Finally I inquired the reason. One of the women replied, “She is feeling badly because they are killing a little baby down at her house.”

“Killing a little baby!”

“Yes,” the girl replied, “they have three little girls and another girl has just come. I feel so badly because she is a dear, fat, little baby. I did not want to see her die, but my sister is determined to kill her.”

“Oh,” I said, “you go