330 _AUSTRALASIAN AND POLYNESIAN 
fallen tribe, the parent intending thereby to swell the ranks of 
his own warriors by the welcome addition of this inferior or 
unlucky clan. In times of peace this servile son-in-law is 
expected to be at the beck and call of his father-in-law. There 
is, properly speaking, no such thing as sale or barter of wives in 
the Hervey Group. 
Exogamy was the universal rule of the olden time. Should a 
tribe be split up in war, the defeated portion was treated as an 
alien tribe. I have known comparatively near relatives to marry 
with the approbation of the elders of the victorious portion 
of the tribe, expressly on the ground that the sanctity of the clan 
law had been wiped out in battle. 
Distant cousins sometimes (though rarely) marry ; but must 
be of the same generation, z.e., be descended in the same degree 
(fourth or fifth, or even more remotely) from the common 
ancestor. That the male branch should thus invade the female 
is a far more pardonable offence that the converse, but even then, 
should misfortune or disease overtake these related couples, the 
elders of the tribe would declare it to be the anger of the clan- 
god (kua kai te angai). It is the duty of parents to teach their 
growing children whom they may Jawfully marry, the choice 
being extremely limited. The correct thing in the native mind 
undoubtedly is exogamy. 
The nuptial ceremony consisted merely in a feast, when bride 
and bridegroom, seated together on a piece of the finest white 
native cloth,* ate together in the presence of their friends, and 
received gifts from them, the good things of the bridegroom’s 
friends going to the bride, and vie versa. 
A remarkable ceremony obtained on Mangaia in families of 
distinction on the marriage of the first-born. Gaily dressed, he 
walked from his own door-way to the house of the father-in-law 
over a continuous pathway of living human bodies, members of 
the wife’s clan. On reaching the goal, three elderly females so 
prostrate themseves as to form a living seat for the bridegroom. 
A fish is now brought forward, and, with the aid of a “pit of 
sharp bamboo, cut up into dice upon a human body. It is now 
presented to the bridegroom, who eats it raw. Piles of native 
cloth and food are then formally presented to the happy man. 
All parties partake of the feast, and afterwards the road of 
living bodies is again formed for the distinguished son-in-law to 
go back, as he came, to his home. 
In due time (a few months later on) the husband’s friends 
return the compliment to the bride, only it is understood that 
(unless of inferior social status) the second exhibition should 
surpass the first. The native name of this remarkable custom is 
“maninitori.” It is a usage of great antiquity, but no account 
* Theinner bark of the Breussonelia papyrifera beaten out with mallets and pasted 
together. 
