258 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
of our arrival, the disproportion between the sexes 
was very great. There were, probably four or five 
men to one woman. In all the schools established 
on the first reception of Christianity, the same 
disproportion prevailed. In more recent years the 
sexes are nearly equal. In addition to this cruel 
practice, others, equally unnatural, prevailed, for 
which the people had not only the sanction of their 
priests, but the direct example of their respective 
deities. 
Without pursuing this painful subject any fur¬ 
ther, or inquiring into its antiquity or its origin, 
which is probably co-eval with that of the mon¬ 
strous Areoi institution; these details are of a 
kind that, must impress every mind, susceptible of 
the common sympathies of humanity, with the 
greatest abhorrence of paganism, under the sanc¬ 
tion of which such cruelties were perpetrated. They 
are also adapted to convey a most powerful con¬ 
viction of the true character of heathenism, and 
the miseries which its votaries endure. 
The abolition of this practice, with the subver¬ 
sion of idolatry, of which an account will be found 
in the succeeding pages, is a grateful reward to 
those who have sent the mild and humanizing prin¬ 
ciples of true religion to those islands. This single 
fact demands the gratitude of every Christian 
parent, especially of every Christian female, and 
affords the most cheering encouragement to those 
engaged in spreading the gospel throughout the 
world. 
The child of a king, or chief of high rank, soon 
after its birth, was taken to the temple, and de¬ 
livered to the paia, or priest, whose office it was 
to perform the required rites. The sacred imple¬ 
ments of war, which were regarded as emblems of 
