The unbounded and almost incredible licentiousness that has prevailed in the Sandwich islands and at Otaheite, has produced the natural effect of diminishing parental and maternal love. When it is inconvenient to take care of children, there is no hesitation about killing them; if strangers wish to buy, they are willing to sell them for a string of beads; they generally pay little attention to their cries or sufferings; and if the poor little creatures are very ill, they lay them down upon the sands to die. The introduction of Christianity into these islands is, however, gradually producing a better state of things. The birth of a son is hailed with the utmost delight. He generally receives the name of some animal, river, or island; but sometimes slight incidents give rise to a name; thus a little girl of the Sandwich islands was called Lealea-hoku, or _The Star Necklace_, because she had a necklace made of small steel stars, such as European ladies formerly wore on their shoes. In New Zealand, fathers take the entire care of boys from the moment they are weaned. The child clasps his little arms about the neck of his parent, and remains suspended on his shoulders, covered with his mat, during the longest journeys and most toilsome occupations. The children are so much accustomed to this position, that they sleep with perfect security. Infants in this part of the world are nursed a long time. They are often able to run about and talk, before they are weaned. When mothers are busy at their work, they lay them down on a clean mat, and when necessary to carry them about, they fasten them in a sort of satchel at their backs. Little children seldom wear clothing of any kind. In the Marquesas, every child inherits at least one bread-fruit tree from its parents; for if they have no trees in their possession, one is planted as soon as an infant is born, that it may have something for future maintenance. The tree is immediately _tabooed_, or forbidden, to every one except the individual for whom it is set apart. Even the parents of the child are not allowed to eat of the fruit, or to dispose of it. Both girls and boys, men and women, hold this species of property with perfect security.