292 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
During the ceremony, I observed a tear moisten¬ 
ing the eye of the youthful bride. Agitation of 
feeling, perhaps, produced it, as I have every reason 
to believe no cloud of anticipated evil overshadowed 
her prospects; and she is reported to have said, 
that had she not been betrothed, but free to choose 
her future partner, she should have selected the 
individual her friends had chosen for her. 
When the service was over, the registry made, 
and the necessary signatures affixed, the parties 
returned, to partake of the entertainment provided. 
We were invited to join them, but declined the 
honour; yet walked down to see the preparation, 
and, among other articles of dessert, noticed two 
barrels full of pine-apples. As soon as the cere¬ 
mony was concluded, the governor’s guards, who 
were drawn up on the outside of the chapel, 
fired several volleys of musketry, and a British 
vessel, lying in the harbour, saluted them with 
twenty-one guns. 
With the abolition of idolatry, all the ceremonies 
originally performed at the temple, and which have 
been already described, 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 revo¬ 
lution some perplexing questions relative to poly¬ 
gamy have naturally arisen, but, for the principal 
difficulties, the code of laws inserted in a preceding 
chapter has made suitable provisions. 
In the marriage ceremony, the use of the ring 
has not been introduced, and the only distinction 
that prevails in society, in reference to married and 
unmarried females, is, that the wife ceases to be 
called by her original name, and is designated by 
that of her husband; excepting where the name 
