never saw him either in the house of his friend, or walking abroad, without the young woman by his side.

Finding the object of her attachment, who was probably about eighteen years of age, unmoved by her attentions, she not only became exceedingly unhappy, but declared, that if she continued to receive the same indifference and neglect, she would either strangle or drown herself. Her friends endeavoured to dissuade her from her purpose; but, as she expressed her determination to be unaltered, they used their endeavours with the stranger, who afterwards returned the attentions he had received, and the parties were married at Huahine. His companions pursued their voyage to Borabora, and afterwards returned to Tahiti, while the new-married couple continued to reside with Taraimano. Their happiness was of short duration; not that death dissolved their union, but that attachment, which had been so ardent in the bosom of the young woman before marriage, was superseded by a dislike as powerful; and although I never heard the slightest charge of unkindness preferred against the husband, his wife not only treated him with insult, but finally left him. Instances of such unhappy marriages, though not unusual formerly, are now of rare

Occurrence.

It is only among the middle and lower ranks of society, that the contract is made by the parties themselves. I am not aware that the husband received any dowry with his wife, unless the rank of her family was inferior to that of his own. The suitor often made presents to the parents of the individual whom he wished to marry, in order to gain their consent.

Among the higher ranks, the individuals themselves were usually passive, and the arrangements were made

by their respective friends. They were usually betrothed to each other during their childhood, and the female thus betrothed was called a vahine pahio. As she grew up, a small platform, of considerable elevation, was erected for her abode, within the dwelling of her parents. Here she slept, and spent the whole of the time she passed within doors. Her parents, or some member of the family, attended her by night and by day, supplied her with every necessary, and accompanied her whenever she

left the house.

When the time fixed for the marriage arrived, and the parties themselves agreed to the union, great preparations were made for the dances, amusements, and festive entertainment, usual on such occasions. A company of Areois generally attended, and, on the day preceding the nuptials, commenced their upaupa, or dance, and pantomimic exhibitions.

On the morning of the marriage-day, a temporary altar was erected in the house of the bride. The relics of her ancestors, perhaps their skulls or bones, were placed upon it, and covered with fine white native cloth ; presents of white cloth were also given by her parents, and those relatives of the family who attended.

The sanction of the gods they considered essential to the marriage contract, and these preliminaries being adjusted, the parties repaired to the marae, or temple. The ceremony was generally performed in the family marae, excepting when the parties were connected with the reigning family, which rendered it necessary that it should be solemnized in the temple of Oro or of Tane, the two principal national idols. On entering the temple, the bride and bridegroom changed their dresses, and arrayed themselves in their wedding garments,

which were afterwards considered sacred; they took their stations in the place appointed for them, the bride on one side of the area, and the bridegroom on the other, five or six yards apart.

The priest now came forward, clad in the habiliments of his office, and, standing before them, addressed the bridegroom usually in the following terms: Eita anei oe a faarue i ta oe vahine? "Will you not cast away your wife?" to which the bridegroom answered, Eitá ; "No." Turning to the bride, he proposed to her the same question, and received a similar answer. The priest then addressed them both, saying, "Happy will it be, if thus with ye two." He then offered a prayer to the gods in their behalf, imploring for them that they might live in affection, and realize all the happiness marriage was designed to secure.

The relatives now brought a large piece of white cloth, which they call ahu vauvau, spreading cloth: it was spread out on the pavement of the marae. The bridegroom and bride took their station upon this cloth, and clasped each other by the hand. The skulls of their ancestors, which were kept carefully preserved by the family, who considered the spirits of the proprietors of these skulls as the guardian spirits of the family, were sometimes brought out and placed before them.

The relatives of the bride then took a piece of sugarcane, and, wrapping it in a branch of the sacred mero, placed it on the head of the bridegroom, while the newmarried pair stood holding each other's hands. Having placed the sacred branch on the bridegroom's head, they laid it down between them. The husband's relatives then performed the same ceremony towards the bride. On some occasions, the female relatives cut their faces

and brows with the instrument set with shark's teeth, received the flowing blood on a piece of native cloth, and deposited the cloth, sprinkled with the mingled blood of the mothers of the married pair, at the feet of the bride.

By the latter parts of the ceremony, any inferiority of rank that might have existed was removed, and they were considered as equal. The two families, also, to which they respectively belonged, were ever afterwards regarded as one. Another large piece of cloth, called the tapoi, covering, was now brought, and the ceremony concluded by the relatives throwing it over the bridegroom and bride.

The cloth used on these occasions, as well as the dress, was considered sacred, and was taken to the king, or appropriated to the use of the Areois. The parties returned to their habitation, where sumptuous feasting followed, the duration of which was according to the rank or means of the families thus united.

Such were the marriage ceremonies formerly observed among the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. There was much in them curious and affecting, especially in the blood of their parents, and the skulls of their ancestors, presented before the parties. The one, perhaps, as the emblem of their union, and the other as witnesses of the agreement. Considering these, and the other significant usages, it is truly surprising how a people, so uncivilized and rude as in many respects they certainly were, should ever have instituted observances singular and impressive, in connexion with the marriage

contract.

SO

Notwithstanding all this ceremony and form in entertering into the engagement, the marriage tie was pro

bably one of the weakest and most brittle that existed among them; neither party felt themselves bound to abide by it any longer than it suited their inclinations and their convenience. The slightest cause was often sufficient to occasion or to justify their separation, though among the higher classes the relation was nominally continued long after it had actually ceased.

Polygamy was practised more extensively by the Tahitians than by the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, and probably prevailed to as great an extent among them as among any of the Polynesian tribes. Many of the raatiras, or inferior chiefs, had two or three wives, who appeared to receive an equal degree of respect and support. With the higher chiefs, however, it was different; although they might, like Hamanemane, keep a number of females, it was rather a system of concubinage, than a plurality of wives, that prevailed among them. The individual to whom the chief was first united in marriage, or whose rank was nearest his own, was generally considered as his wife, and, so long as she lived with her husband, the other females were considered as inferior. When the rank of the parties was equal, they often separated; the husband took other wives, and the wife other husbands; and if the rank of the wife was in any degree superior to that of her husband, she was at liberty to take as many other husbands as she pleased, although still nominally regarded as the wife of the individual to whom she had been first married.

With the abolition of idolatry all the ceremonies originally performed at the temple were discontinued, and, shortly after the reception of Christianity by the nation, Christian marriage was instituted, and it is now universally observed. From this moral revolution some