COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 267 
as the natives themselves, the practice was dis¬ 
continued for some years. 
The celebration of marriage frequently took 
place among the Tahitians at an early age, with 
females at twelve or thirteen, and with males when 
two or three years older. Betrothment was the 
frequent method by which marriage contracts were 
made among the chiefs, or higher ranks in society. 
The parties themselves were not often sufficiently 
advanced in years to form any judgment of their own, 
yet, on arriving at maturity, they rarely objected 
to the engagements their friends had made. 
The period of courtship was seldom protracted 
among any class of the people; yet all the inci¬ 
dent and romantic adventure that was to be ex¬ 
pected in a community in which a high degree of 
sentimentality prevailed, was occasionally exhi¬ 
bited, and the unsuccessful suitor, perhaps, led to 
the commission of suicide, under the influence of 
revenge and despair. Unaccustomed to disguise 
either their motives or their wishes, they generally 
spoke and acted without hesitation ; hence, what¬ 
ever barriers might oppose the union of the parties, 
whether it was the reluctance of either of the 
individuals, or of their respective families, the 
means used for their removal were adopted with 
much less ceremony than is usually observed in 
civilized society. Several instances of this kind 
occurred during our residence in Huahine : one 
regarded a chief of Eimeo, who had followed 
Taaroarii the king's son. His figure was tall and 
gigantic, his countenance and manners not un¬ 
pleasing, and his disposition mild. He was upwards 
of twenty years of age. Some time after our 
arrival in Huahine, he became attached to the 
