OF THE SOUTH SEAS 359 



Mme. Tetuanui and I had a lengthy confabulation. 

 No Tahitian was better informed than she upon the 

 former status of her sex in Tahiti, and from her I 

 gained a lively summary. 



Woman was inferior among the old Tahitians. Man 

 had here as everywhere so ordained, and religion had 

 fixed her position by taboos, as among the Hebrews. 

 She was often merely a servant, yet she maintained a 

 unique sex freedom. Her body was her own, and not 

 her husband's as in the English common law. She pre- 

 pared the man's food and never sat at meals with him. 

 If she ate at the same time, which was seldom, she sat 

 at a distance, but near enough to hear his commands. 

 It is so to-day when Tahitian men gather for feasting 

 without foreigners, as in the Philippines, Japan, and 

 China, and in many European countries. The Haus- 

 frau of the small merchant, laborer, or farmer is a 

 drudge. In Japan the w'oman remains subject to the 

 hourly whims and wants of her husband, and to his fre- 

 quent infidelity, though she is true to him. 



The Tahiti wife had the care of the canoe, the pad- 

 dles, and all the fishing and hunting things, and she 

 accompanied her husband often in these pursuits. The 

 husband had to make the fire, prepare the oven, kill the 

 pig or dog or fowl, and do the outside chores ; but she 

 had a lesser position than he at all public observances. 

 She could not become a priest or enter the temple, but 

 must remain always at a distance from the marae. Yet 

 she could be a queen or a chiefess, and as such was as 

 powerful as a man, making war in person, and often 

 leading her troops valiantly. The Tahitian women 

 were nearly as strong as the men and mentally their 



