POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
339 
principal chiefs it was allowed nominally to remain, 
the husband took other wives, and the wife other 
husbands. These were mostly individuals of personal 
attractions, but of inferior rank in society. The progeny 
of such a union was almost invariably destroyed, if 
not by the parents themselves, by the relatives of 
those superior in rank, lest the dignity of the family, 
or their standing in society, should be injured by being 
blended with those of an inferior class. More infant 
murders have probably been committed under these 
circumstances, from notions of family pride, than from 
any other cause. One of my Missionary companions* 
states, that by the murder of such children, the party 
of inferior birth has been progressively elevated in rank, 
and that the degree of distinction attained, was 
according to the number destroyed,—that by this means, 
parties, before unequal, were considered as correspond¬ 
ing in rank, and their offspring allowed to live. 
The raatirasy or secondary class of chiefs, and others 
by whom it was practised, appear to have been influ¬ 
enced by the example of their superiors, or the shame¬ 
less love of idleness. The spontaneous productions of 
the soil were so abundant, that little care or labour was 
necessary to provide the means of subsistence: the 
climate was so warm, that the clothing required, as 
well as the food, could be procured with the greatest 
facility! yet they considered the little trouble required 
as an irksome task. A man with three or four 
children, and this was a rare occurrence, was said to 
be a taata taubuubuu, a man with an unwieldy or 
cumbrous burden; and there is reason to believe that, 
simply to avoid the trifling care and effort necessary 
* Mr, Williams. 
