The Society and Sandwich Islanders, whose lives were habitually dissolute, shunned all trouble which interfered with their freedom of intercourse, and children were considered especially burdensome. Infanticide prevailed to a frightful extent among them, and, as if the ordinary dissoluteness of the people had not been ample inducement to this most flagitious crime, the tyranny of the rulers invented a poll-tax, in whose operation children over ten were included. The poorer inhabitants of these blissful regions, who already felt the rod of oppression too severely, found in this an additional motive to child-murder. But in its operation it was even more cruel than infanticide, for many children who had been suffered to live were put to death as they approached the period when they would be liable to taxation. The murder was consummated sometimes by the parents, at times mercifully, and at times horribly. There were a class of persons who practiced child-murder professionally.
In the Samoan group the girls are often early betrothed, without reference to years, the girl being taboo until of marriageable age. During the intervening period the bridegroom accumulates property. The marriage festival is held with all circumstances of uproar and debauchery, and the guests stay as long as there is any thing to eat. The consummation of the marriage and the virginity of the bride are published by the proofs required in the Jewish law.
When a man in this group wishes to take a wife, he must ask the chief’s consent. This obtained, he presents to the girl of his choice a basket of bread-fruit, by accepting which she accepts the donor. The husband then pays the parents a sum of money for her, according to her rank and estimation; sometimes the courtship is to the family, without consulting the girl, who is expected to conform to her parents’ will in the matter.
A Samoan may repudiate his wife and marry again on certain conditions, but the woman may not leave her husband without his consent.
Adultery among the Samoans was formerly punished by death, and the marriage vow is strictly observed by them. It is considered highly discreditable for a young woman to form a connection with a native before marriage, although temporary intercourse with a foreigner is not considered objectionable. It may be that such a distinction is in compliment to the conceded superiority of the white; but the explanation of a chief would rather put the question on convenience than morality, for he objected to native young men as always hanging about the premises, and attaching themselves to the young woman, whereas the foreigner gave his presents and sailed away when the period of his stay was ended, leaving the object of his choice free again.
The Marquesas Islands have a singular institution, similar to one prevalent among the ancient Lacedæmonians. A woman has more than one husband. This has been called polyandrism, but it does not seem precisely such. A wife of a young warrior unknown to fame is honored by the advances of a more distinguished individual, by whom children may be begotten. The superior chief takes the wife and her lawful husband under his protection and into his hut.
The population of some of the districts in the Sandwich Islands is rapidly decreasing. By a register kept in Hawaii, it appears there are three deaths to one birth. This disproportion is attributed to low habit of body, the consequence of venereal disease. Syphilis was introduced into these islands by Cook’s expedition, and the whole of the natives in some districts are now said to be reduced to a morbid, sickly state, many of the women being incapable of child-bearing, and but few of the children attaining maturity.
There are other concurrent causes to contribute toward this decay, among which the difference of food, and the introduction of clothing, and consequent diminution of ablution among a people who spent half their lives in the water, are not unimportant; but the district of Hanapepe, where the decrease was most rapid, was that in which the virus was first introduced, and here it is still most virulent in its action and effects.
Whatever the causes, the same effect is in powerful operation, though not to the same depopulating extent, in other places. At Waialua, in 1832, the population was 2640; in 1835 it had fallen to 2415. There had been no war nor epidemic. It was the ordinary condition of the people. Sterility and abortion are considered the most potent causes. Abortion is very common, and there are cases in which women have had six or seven, and sometimes ten in as many years, and no children.[369]
Personal and mutual abuse had been much practiced in early life among the settlers, and is a cause of sterility.