FEMALE DEGRADATION. 391 
will elevate the degraded classes, especially the 
females,* to the rank and influence for which 
they were designed, and render their domestic 
society as rational and happy, as under the tabu it 
was abject and wretched. 
* Their degraded condition appears to have attracted 
the notice of the intelligent voyagers by whom the islands 
were discovered ; for, speaking of the Sandwich Islanders, 
Captain King, in his Continuation of Cook’s Voyages, re¬ 
marks, u It must, however, be observed, that they fall very 
short of the other islanders, in that best test of civilization, 
the respect paid to the women. Here they are not only 
deprived of the privilege of eating with the men, but the 
best sorts of food are tabooed, or forbidden them and 
adds, “ In their domestic life, they appear to live almost 
entirely by themselves; and, though we did not observe 
any instance of personal ill-treatment, yet it is evident they 
had little regard or attention paid them.”— Cook’s Voyages , 
yoI. iii. p. I§0. 
