388 CHARACTER. 



other savages they resembled children in many respects, 

 their sorrows were transient, their passions suddenly and 

 strongly expressed. On one occasion, Oberea, the queen, 

 who was then about forty years old, took a particular fancy 

 to a large doll, which was accordingly presented to her. 

 Shortly afterwards they met Tootahah, one of the principal 

 chiefs, who became so jealous of Oberea's doll, that they 

 were obliged to give him one also. 



There are scarcely any nations, whether barbarous or 

 civilised, in which the relations of the two sexes are quite 

 satisfactory. Savages, almost without exception, treat their 

 women as slaves, and civilised nations too often avoid this 

 error only to fall into others. 



The inhabitants of Tahiti are said to have been absolutely 

 without any ideas of decency, or rather as Captain Cook puts 

 it, perhaps more correctly, " of indecency. " This no doubt 

 arose in part from their large open houses, which were not 

 divided into separate rooms. However this may be, where 

 there was no sin, they saw no shame, and it must be confessed 

 that in many points their idea of sin was very different from 

 ours. Before, however, we condemn them, let us remember 

 that a dinner party would have seemed as wrong to them as 

 many of their customs do to us. If the freedom both in 

 language and in action which they permitted to themselves, 

 seems to us in many respects objectionable, we must not 

 forget that our ideas of delicacy shut out from general con- 

 versation many subjects of great interest and importance. 



A considerable number of the principal people of both 

 sexes in Tahiti were formed into an association called the 

 " Arreoy," all the members of which were regarded as being 

 married to one another. If any of the women of the society 

 had a child it was almost invariably killed ; but if it was 

 allowed to live, the father and mother were regarded as 

 having definitively engaged themselves to one another, and 



