206 cook's first voyage 1769. 



if it were possible, would more explicitly convey the 

 same ideas. In these dances they keep time with an 

 exactness which is scarcely excelled by the best per- 

 formers upon the stages of Europe. But the practice 

 which is allowed to the virgin is prohibited to the 

 woman from the moment that she has put these 

 liopeful lessons in practice, and realized the symbols 

 of the dance. 



It cannot be supposed that, among these people, 

 chastity is held in much estimation. It might be ex- 

 pected that sisters and daughters would be offered to 

 strangers, either as a courtesy, or for reward; and 

 that breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife, 

 should not be otherwise punished than by a few hard 

 words, or perhaps a slight beating, as indeed is the 

 case; but there is a scale in dissolute sensuality, 

 which these people have ascended, wholly unknown 

 to every other nation whose manners have been re- 

 corded from the beginning of the world to the pre- 

 sent hour, and which no imagination could possibly 

 conceive. 



A very considerable number of the principal peo- 

 ple of Otaheite, of both sexes, have formed them- 

 selves into a society, in which every woman is com- 

 mon to every man ; thus securing a perpetual variety 

 as often as their inclination prompts them to seek 

 it, which is so frequent, that the same man and 

 woman seldom cohabit together more than two or 

 three days. 



These societies are distinguished by the name of 

 Arreoy ; and the members have meetings, at whicii 

 no other is present, where the men amuse themselves 

 by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their 

 occasional connection with different men, dance the 

 Timorodee in all its latitude, as an incitement to de- 

 sires which it is said are frequently gratified upon the 

 spot. This, however, is comparatively nothing. If 

 any of the women happen to be with child, which in 

 this manner of life happens less frequently than if 



