14 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Art. IV. — Maori Marriage Customs : being Notes on Ancient 

 Maori Customs, Ritual and Sociological, coimected xoith 

 Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce, together ivith some 

 Account of the Levirate, and of many Superstitious Beliefs, 

 and Ancient Animistic Myths connected ivith the same, as 

 held and preserved by the Maori Peoples of the Tuhoe 

 Tribe. 



By Elsdon Best. 



[Read befoTA the Auckland Institute, 5th October, 1903.] 



In works treating on Polynesian ethnology and sociology 

 the subject of niarriage is invariably disposed of in a few 

 sentences. The writer usually states that there was no mar- 

 riage rite among these peoples, but that, in New Zealand, a 

 custom obtained by which young people were betrothed to 

 each other. Others have said that a formal handing-over 

 of the woman to her husband was usual in New Zealand. 

 These brief remarks show a surprising paucity of information, 

 and are often rendered in such a manner as to give readers 

 the impression that marriage among the Maori people was, in 

 former times, but a low type of cohabiting, to which no 

 ancestral customs, forms, or rite pertained. 1 propose to 

 show in this paper that these scant accounts are misleading, 

 and that the impressions left on the reader's mind after a 

 perusal of the same are quite erroneous. 



The Maoris were ever a most punctilious people, and ever 

 adhered rigidly to ancient customs and forms, social and 

 otherwise. No exception was made in regard to such of these 

 as related to marriage. They might occasionally be ignored 

 by young people, but if so the tribal opinion, or that of the 

 sub-clan or family group, would at once condemn such a 

 breach of custom. I propose, then, to show that — First, 

 there was a marriage rite among the natives of New Zealand. 

 Secondly, a recognised and enforced mode of procedure 

 obtamed in regard to marriage, the arrangement of which was 

 conducted by the elders of the interested couple. There were, 

 undoubtedly, exceptions to the above arrangements, but these 

 exceptions are no proof that such rules were not generally 

 recognised, and upheld. The same might be said of our own 

 marriage system, which is by no means universally followed 

 among us. For instance, the rite, which will be explained 

 anon, was performed over parties belonging to the rangatlra 

 class only — i.e., persons of good birth — but never over low-born 

 persons [tutua or ware) ; but even in the case of the latter the 

 marriage would not be a formless pairing or cohabiting, but 

 would be proposed, discussed, and arranged, with possibly 



