Ch. v. the Islands of the South Sea. 87 



remained unmarried, living like the members of 

 the Eareeoie society in Otaheite, and distinguished 

 by a similar name.* In the island of Formosa, it 

 is said that the women were not allowed to bring 

 children into the world before the age of thirty- 

 five. If they were with-child prior to that period, 

 an abortion was effected by the priestess, and till 

 the husband was forty years of age the wife conti- 

 nued to live in her father's house, and was only 

 seen by stealth. f 



The transient visits which have been made to 

 some other islands, and the imperfect accounts 

 we have of them, do not enable us to enter into 

 any particular detail of their customs ; but, from 

 the general similarity of these customs, as far as 

 has been observed, we have reason to think that, 

 though they may not be marked by some of the 

 more atrocious peculiarities which have been 

 mentioned, vicious habits with respect to women, 



* Cook's Third Voyage, vol. ii. p. 158, note of the Editor. 



f Harris's Collection of Voyages, 2 vols, folio edit. 1744, vol. i. 

 p. 794. This relation is given by John Albert de Mandesloe, a 

 German traveller of some reputation for fidelity, though I believe, 

 in this instance, he takes his accounts from the Dutch writers 

 quoted by Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, liv. 23. ch. 17). The 

 authority is not perhaps sufficient to establish the existence of so 

 strange a custom ; though I confess it does not appear to me 

 wholly improbable. In the same account it is mentioned, that 

 there is no difference of condition among these people, and that 

 their wars are so bloodless that the death of a single person gene- 

 rally decides them. In a very healthy climate, where the habits 

 of the people were favourable to population and a community of 

 goods was established, as no individual would have reason to fear 



