CHILDREN. 
165 
When a chief had several wives, he could then entertain guests 
without fear of scarcity, and this was a sign of greatness. 
When a man left home on a long journey, he repeated a 
karakia over his wife, that she might be faithful, with a curse 
on any one who should do him dishonor : — 
Ko Mam kia tiakina te waha o runga, 
Ko Tutangata kino kia tiakina te waha o raro, 
Ka wakanolio ko niata te kuwaka ka kapi ka urakia, 
He aka te manu nana i noko te upoko o taku kaka ? 
He katipo, he kaxewa, he au ika, kia tika ki te tangata, 
Nana i makutu, nana i kaia. 
Generally, the first wife was a lady of rank, and was always 
viewed as the chief wife, however many others there might 
he, and of whatever rank ; but some were regarded as servile 
wives. Heuheu had six, but one only ranked as the head wife. 
The first born son, though his mother was only a slave wife, had 
all the rights of primogeniture ; but should the first born child 
be by the lady wife, he then acquired the dignity of an ariki. 
This rank also was 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, they are never checked; once, and once 
only, I saw a man, whose child (an infant, one or two years 
old) was very troublesome, crying incessantly in the church, 
take him up and run out with him to a river close by, in which 
be 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 
* This is the usual way of curing little squeaking pigs: they hold them 
under water until they arc quiet. 
