338 
MARRIAGE. 
she might he faithful, with a curse on any one who should do 
him dishonor : — 
Ko Maru kia tiakina te waha o runga, 
Ko Tutangata kino kia tiakina te waha o raro, 
Ka wakanoho ko mata te kuwaha ka kapi ka urahia, 
He aha te manu nana i noho te upoko o taku kaha ? 
He katipo, he karewa, he au ika, kia tika ki te tangata, 
Nana i makutu, nana i kaia. 
The first wife was generally a lady of rank, and always 
viewed as the head, however many there might be, and of 
whatever rank ; some were regarded as only servile ones. 
Wives in general were treated with great respect, and had 
a voice in all their councils ; in fact they enjoyed great 
liberty, and perhaps there are few races who treat their 
women with more deference than the Maori. The first-born 
son, though his mother was only a slave, had all the rights 
of primogeniture ; but should he be the child of the lady 
wife, he then acquired the dignity of an ariki. This rank was 
also given to her first-born, although a female. 
Infanticide was formerly very common ; it was generally 
perpetrated by the mother, and frequently from grief for the 
loss of her husband, or in revenge for his ill-treatment of her. 
A woman of the Thames destroyed seven of her children, the 
reason she assigned for such unnatural cruelty, was that she 
might be light to run away, if attacked or pursued by the 
enemy : this was especially the fate of female children ; but 
in general they show great affection for their offspring ; 
indeed the children are suffered to do as they like ; they sit 
in all their councils, and are seldom checked \ once, and 
once only, I saw a man, whose child was very troublesome 
in church, take him up and run out with him to a river close 
by, in which he kept ducking him until he ceased crying.* 
The children seem to be more precocious than those of 
Europeans, and however unruly in younger days, when 
about sixteen they become quite men, and frequently as 
* This is the usual way of curing little squeaking pigs ; they hold them under 
water until they are quiet. 
