POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 571 
bably one of the weakest and most brittle that existed 
among them; neither party felt themselves bound to 
abide by it any longer than it suited their inclinations 
and their convenience. The slightest cause was often 
sufficient to occasion or to justify their separation, 
though among the higher classes the relation was nomi^ 
nally continued long after it had actually ceased. . 
Polygamy was practised more extensively by the 
Tahitians than by the inhabitants of the Sandwich 
Islands, and probably prevailed to as great an extent 
among them as among any of the Polynesian tribes. 
Many of the raatiras, or inferior chiefs, had two or three 
wives, who appeared to receive an equal degree of respect 
and support. With the higher chiefs, however, it was 
different 5 although they might, like Hamanemane, keep 
a number of females, it was rather a system of concu¬ 
binage, than a plurality of wives, that prevailed among 
them. The individual to whom the chief was first united 
in marriage, or whose rank was nearest his own, was 
generally considered as his wife, and, so long as she 
lived with her husband, the other females were considered 
as inferior. When the rank of the parties was equal, 
they often separated; the husband took other wives, and 
the wife other husbands ; and if the rank of the wife was 
in any degree superior to that of her husband, she was at 
liberty to take as many other husbands as she pleased, 
although still nominally regarded as the wife of the in¬ 
dividual to whom she had been first married. 
With the abolition of idolatry all the ceremonies 
originally performed at the temple were discontinued, 
and, shortly after the reception of Christianity by the 
nation, Christian marriage was instituted, and it is now 
universally observed. • From this moral revolution some 
