Best. — Maori Marriage Customs. 43 



system. But it was essentially an aristocratic rite, for only 

 those of high birth had the ceremony performed at their 

 marriage ; the common people were not deemed worthy of 

 the priestly invocations or the unuc kotore. They were dogs. 



We return to our tauviou. This was not a universal cus- 

 tom among the chieftain class ; every girl or boy of good birth 

 was not so betrothed. It was sometimes done for political 

 reasons, in order to advance the welfare of the clan or tribe. 

 These betrothals took place during the infancy of the couple. 

 For instance, a man while visiting a village community 

 might cliance to see a little girl \vho took his fancy, and 

 whom he would desire to pre-empt, as it were, as a wife for 

 his own little son when they should have arrived at marrying 

 age. If the girl was of equal rank to his son he would claim 

 her by making some such remark as, " Maku t07in koe, mo 

 taku taviaiti" (" You are for me, for my child"). And that 

 remark would be agreed to by the elders of the girl, unless 

 they had some special objection to him or to the proposed 

 alliance. It would then be arranged that the two children 

 should be married w^hen they grew up. It would be very bad 

 form for any person to disregard the betrothal. Should any 

 man have sexual connection with the girl he would very 

 probably be slain, if a commoner, and possibly cooked and 

 eaten ; for the saying of old was, " Zwa eke he taumou tia 

 tetahi, ka^caka hai ratveke" ("Those on whom a taumoic ha,s 

 been placed, do not interfere with them "). 



After the betrothal the girl might be kept at home with 

 her parents, or they might let her future father-in-law take 

 her away to live at his place, and there to associate and grow 

 upwith her future husband ; or she might stay alternately at 

 each place. This custom, like many other strange ones, has 

 long died out. The coming of the Europeans changed all 

 these things, hence we use the past tense in describing them. 

 Old Hauraki and his wife, of Eua-tahuna, are two of the few 

 survivors of the last who were tatcmou. 



A girl or boy who happened to be so betrothed was not 

 termed a taumou : that expression simply implies the custom. 

 A betrothed girl was not termed a puhi among the Tuhoe 

 Tribe. 



An old woman, a resident of Rua-tahuna, was betrothed 

 during her childhood, when she was about seven or eight 

 years of age, to one Tarei, of Ngati-Awa. After some time 

 her aunt took her to the home of Tarei's parents, that the two 

 children might be together. The girl remained there for some 

 time, but did not like the idea of marrying Tarei, so her 

 people took her back home, three days' march inland. No 

 attempt was made by either side to coerce her. But when, 

 subsequently, a party of Ngati-Awa visited Rua-tahuna they 



