Love and Marriage in 
Polynesia. 
HE rapid advance of civilisation and the 
X spread of Christianity for the last fifty 
years among the Malayo-Polynesian races of 
the South Pacific have had, naturally enough, 
much to do with either the partial abandonment 
or the total extinction of many of their customs. 
In some cases this, and the substitution of 
European for native habits, is to be regretted, 
such as, for instance, the quick and incon¬ 
siderate adoption of European clothing by a 
people whose daily habits of life and constitu¬ 
tion rendered them peculiarly unfitted for such 
a sudden and violent change. Between 1823 
and 1830, when the natives of Rarotonga and 
other islands of the Cook Group, following their 
