274 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
cubinage, 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 regarded 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 individual to whom she 
had been first married. 
