32 Transactioyis. — Miscellaneous. 



Youthful Cohabiting. 



There is a Maori saying, "He iti kopua wai, ka he to 

 vianaiua."'^- This saying is heard when a girl wants to marry 

 too soon, before she is old enough, in the opinion of her 

 elders. Early marriages seem to have been common among 

 the Maori, although the elders appear to have believed it to be 

 harmful, judging from such sayings as the one given above, 

 and which were somewhat plentiful. The young folk early 

 arrive at puberty — Colenso says from twelve, and even eleven, 

 years upward. There was no system of obligatory defloration 

 of girls, nor was it in any way necessary or practicable. The 

 girls attended to that, for illicit intercourse was, and is still, 

 common among the young people. It often happened, say the 

 elderly people, that a girl would have intei-course with a youth 

 before she arrived at puberty — " before the growth of hair," as 

 a native puts it. Daughters of chiefs were probably looked 

 after better than those of the common people, and those girls 

 who were made pz^/u were tapic to all men until married. 

 Girls who had been with young men were sometimes de- 

 tected by traces oi pm-apara, ttc, being found upon them. 



In former times many girls married, or were married, very 

 young, even sometimes before puberty and before the com- 

 mencement of menstruation — at least, so say these natives. A 

 young girl of this district was lately married and she cannot 

 have been more than thirteen, or at the most fourteen, years 

 of age. This is, however, unusual here. The term krypepe is 

 here used to denote this marrying of very young girls : " E 

 tama ! He kop)cpe koe i te tamaiti na." 



Several causes may be assigned for the early marriages of 

 the Maori — the early age of puberty ; the carrying-out of the 

 taumou, or infant betrothals ; the keen sexual desire of girls, 

 not repressed or controlled by long generations of self-control 

 and moral teachings of elders, as among more advanced 

 peoples. Possibly it was as w^ell so, for -^-outhful cohabiting 

 being common, and a prolonged course o general intercourse 

 being conducive to sterility in the female, it were better for 

 the girl to be married to one man. For her days of freedom 

 in sexual matters would then be over. Adultery spelled 

 trouble in the days of yore. 



An old native saying has it thus : " Korerotia hi runga ki 

 te takapau whara-nui," the meaning of which is, "Let 

 matters be properly arranged by the elders in council. Do 

 not let the young people cohabit promiscuously, but let the 

 tribe marry them according to proper rules and older 

 custom." 



•Applied to the girl : "A small pool of water will exhaust a man's 

 breath if he immerses himself therein." 



