immemorial time, jealousy still burns among the wives as fiercely as
in any Christian country where the institution is forbidden by the
social law. It is the cause of bitter domestic feuds. The household,
with a plurality of women, is rarely at peace. It is universally known
to what an extent the jealousy of the Dutch women in Batavia carried
them when their husbands indulged in the practice--common in Dutch
settlements--of keeping female slaves. They watched their opportunity,
and when it occurred would carry a poor girl into the woods, strip her
entirely naked, smear her person all over with honey, and leave her
to be tortured by the attacks of insects and vermin. A similar spirit
of ferocious jealousy is characteristic of the women in New Zealand.
The inferior wives consequently lead a miserable life, subjected to
the severest tyranny from the chief, who makes them her handmaids, and
sometimes terrifies her husband from marital intercourse with them. She
exposes them to perpetual danger by endeavouring to insinuate into his
mind suspicions of their fidelity, and thus the household is rendered
miserable. When a man takes a journey he is usually accompanied by one
of his wives, or, if he goes alone, will bring one back with him. Hence
arise bitter heart-burnings and quarrels. Occasionally they lead to the
death of one among the disputants, and frequently to infanticide.
So furious are the passions of the women when their jealousy is excited
against their younger rivals, that many of the chiefs in New Zealand
fear to enjoy the privilege allowed them by their social law. When
they resolve upon it, they often proceed with a caution very amusing
to contemplate. More than one anecdote in illustration of this is
related in the works of recent travellers. A man having a first wife
of bad temper and faded beauty, whom he fears, nevertheless, to offend
altogether, is attracted by some young girl of superior charms, and
offers to take her home; she accepts, and the husband prepares to
execute his design. It is often long before he acquires courage to
inform his wife, and only by the most skilful mixture of persuasion,
management, and threats, that she is ever brought to consent. Women
captured in battle, however, may be made slaves, or taken at once to
their captor’s bed. Thus raised from actual slavery, their condition
is little improved. The tyranny of the chief wife is exercised to
oppress, insult, and irritate them. Should one of them prove pregnant,
her mistress--especially if herself barren--will often exert the most
abominable arts to ensure her miscarriage, that the husband may be
disappointed of his child, and the concubine of his favour which would
thence accrue to her.
Divorces, according to the testimony of most writers, are not
unfrequent in New Zealand. Among the ordinary causes are, mere decline
of conjugal affection, barrenness in the wife, and a multiplication
of concubines. A stepmother ill-treating the children, or a mother
wantonly killing one of them, is liable to divorce. The latter is not
an useless precaution, for jealous wives have been known in cold blood
to murder an infant, merely to revenge themselves upon their husbands,
or irritate them into divorce. A woman extravagantly squandering the
common property, idling her time, playing the coquette, becoming
suspected of infidelity, or refusing to admit a new wife into the
house, is sometimes put away. This is effected by expelling her from
the house. When it is she who seeks it, she flies to her relatives
or friends. Should the husband be content with his loss, both are at
liberty to marry; but if he desire to regain her, he seeks to coax
her back, and, failing in that, employs force. She is compelled to
submit unless her parents are powerful enough to defend her--for in
New Zealand arms are the arbiters of law. When the desire to separate
is mutual, it is effected by agreement, which is a complete release to
both. If the husband insist on taking away the children, he may, but he
is forbidden, on pain of severe punishment, from annoying his former
wife any further.
There is among the New Zealanders a rite known as _Tapu_, and the
person performing it is sacred against the touch of another. While in
this condition no contact is allowed with any person or thing. There
are, however, comparative forms of Tapu. Thus a woman, in the matter
of sexual intercourse, is _tapu_ to all but her husband, and adultery
is severely punished. Formerly the irrevocable remedy was death, and
this may still be inflicted; but jealousy is seldom strong in the New
Zealand husband, who often contents himself with receiving a heavy
fine from his enemy. The crime is always infamous, but not inexpiable.
The husband occasionally, when his wife has been guilty, takes her
out of the house, strips her, and exposes her entirely naked, then
receiving her back with forgiveness. The paramour usually attempts to
fly. If he be not put to death, he also is sometimes subjected to a
similar disgrace. When a wife discovers any girl carrying on a secret
and illicit connection with her husband, a favourite mode of revenge
is, to strip and expose her in this manner. For, in New Zealand,
libidinous as the conduct of the people may be, their outward behaviour
is, on the whole, decorous. They indulge in few indecencies before a
third person. The exposure of the person is one of the most terrible
punishments which can be inflicted. A woman has hanged herself on its
being said that she has been seen naked. One girl at Karawanga, on the
river Thames, charged with this offence, was hung up by the heels and
ignominiously flogged before all the tribe. Shame drove her mad, and
she shot herself. They are otherwise obscene, and the children are
adepts in indecency and immorality. One strong characteristic of their
rude attempts at art is the obscenity in their paintings and carvings.
In those singular specimens which crowd the rocks of Depuch Island, on
the coast of New Holland, not a trace of this grossness is visible.
One of the most melancholy features in the manners of this barbarous
race, is the prevalence of infanticide. The Christian converts, as well
as some of the natives who hold frequent intercourse with the more
respectable Europeans, have abandoned it, as well as polygamy; but,
with these exceptions, it is general throughout the thinly-scattered
population of New Zealand. It almost always takes place immediately
after birth, before the sentiment of maternal affection grows strong
in the mother’s breast. After keeping a child a little while they
seldom, except under the influence of frenzy, destroy it. As they
have said to travellers, they do not look on them, lest they should
love them. The weakly or deformed are always slain. The victim is
sometimes buried alive, sometimes killed by violent compression of its
head. This practice has contributed greatly to keep the population
down. It is openly and unblushingly pursued, the principal victims
being the females. The chief reasons for it are usually--revenge in
the woman against her husband’s neglect, poverty, dread of shame, and
superstition. One of the most common causes is the wife’s belief that
her husband cares no longer for his offspring. The priests, whose
low cunning is as characteristic of the class in those islands as
elsewhere, frequently demand a victim for an oblation of blood to the
spirit of evil, and never fail to extort the sacrifice from some poor
ignorant mother. Another injurious and unnatural practice is, that of
checking or neutralizing the operations of nature by procuring abortion.
Tyrone Power, in his observations on the immorality prevalent in New
Zealand, remarks that some of the young girls, betrothed from an early
age, are _tapu_, and thus preserved chaste. He regrets that this
superstition is not more influential, since it would check the system
of almost universal and indiscriminate prostitution, which prevails
among those not subject to this rite. Except when the woman is _tapu_,
her profligacy is neither punished nor censured. Fathers, mothers,
and brothers will, without a blush, give, sell, or lend on hire, the
persons of their female relatives. The women themselves willingly
acknowledge the bargain, and Mr. Power declares the most modest of them
will succumb to a liberal offer of money. Nor is anything else to be
expected, in any general degree. The children are educated to obscenity
and vice. Their intercourse is scarcely restrained, and the early age
at which it takes place has proved physically injurious to the race.
Even those who are betrothed in infancy and rendered _tapu_ to each
other, commence cohabitation before they have emerged, according to
English ideas, from childhood. Except in the case of those couples
thus pledged before they can make a choice of their own, the laws
which in New Zealand regulate the intercourse of the sexes with regard
to preparations for marriage, approach in spirit to our own. A man
desiring to take as wife a woman who is bound by no betrothment has to
court her, and sometimes does so with supplication. The girls exhibit
great coyness of manner, and are particular in hiding their faces from
the stranger’s eye. When they bathe it is in a secluded spot; but they
exercise all the arts which attract the opposite sex. When one or two
suitors woo an independent woman, the choice is naturally given to the
wealthiest; but should she decline to fix her preference on either, a
desperate feud occurs, and she is won by force of arms. Sometimes a
young girl is seized by two rivals, who pull on either side until her
arms are loosened in the sockets, and one gives way.
Perhaps, under these circumstances, the system of betrothal is
productive of useful results, since it prevents the feuds and conflicts
which might otherwise spring from the rivalry of suitors. The girl
thus bound must submit to marriage with the man, whatever may be
her indifference or aversion to him. Occasionally, indeed, some
more youthful, or otherwise attractive, lover gains her consent to
an elopement. If caught, however, both of the culprits are severely
whipped. Should the young suitor be of poor and mean condition, he
runs the chance of being robbed and murdered for his audacity. When,
on the contrary, a powerful chief is desirous of obtaining a maiden
who is betrothed, he has little difficulty in effecting his object,
for in New Zealand the liberty of the individual is proportionate to
his strength. It is a feudal system, where the strong may evade the
regulations of the social law, and the weak must submit. Justice,
however, to the missionaries in those islands requires us to add, that
in the districts where their influence is strong, a beneficial change
in this, as in other respects, has been produced upon the people. They
acknowledge more readily the supremacy of law; they prefer a judicial
tribunal to the trial of arms; they restrain their animal passions in
obedience to the moral code which has been exhibited to them; and many
old polygamists have put away all their wives but one, contented to
live faithfully with her.
Among the heathen population chastity is not viewed in the same light
as with us. It not so much required from the _woman_ as from the
_wife_, from the _young girl_ as from the _betrothed maiden_. In fact,
it signifies little more than faithful conduct in marriage, not for
the sake of honour or virtue, but for that of the husband. With such
a social theory, we can expect no general refinement in morality.
Indeed, the term is not translatable into the language of New Zealand.
Modesty is a fashion, not a sentiment, with them. The woman who would
retire from the stranger’s gaze may, previous to marriage or betrothal,
intrigue with any man without incurring an infamous reputation.
Prostitution is not only a common but a recognised thing. Men care
little to receive virgins into their huts as wives. Husbands have
boasted that their wives had been the concubines of Europeans; and one
declared to Polack that he was married to a woman who had regularly
followed the calling of a prostitute among the crews of ships in the
harbour. This he mentioned with no inconsiderable pride, as a proof of
the beauty of the prize he had carried away.
Formerly many of the chiefs dwelling on the coast were known to derive
a part of their revenue from the prostitution of young females. It was,
indeed, converted into a regular trade, and to a great extent with
the European ships visiting the group. The handsomest and plumpest
women in the villages were chosen, and bartered for certain sums
of money or articles of merchandise, some for a longer, some for a
shorter period. The practice is now, if not abolished, at least held
in great reprobation, as the following anecdote will show. It exhibits
the depraved manners of the people in a striking light, and is an
illustration of that want of affection between married people which has
been remarked as a characteristic of the New Zealanders. A chief from
Wallatani, in the Bay of Plenty, went on an excursion to the Bay of
Islands, and was accompanied by his wife and her sister. There he met
a chief of the neighbourhood, who possessed some merchandise which he
coveted. He at once offered to barter the chastity of his wife for the
goods, and the proposal was accepted. The woman told her sister of the
transaction, and she divulged the secret. So much reproach was brought
upon the chief among his people, that he shot his wife’s sister to
punish her incontinent tongue.
Jerningham Wakefield describes the arrival of the whalers in port.
He mentions as one of the most important transactions following this
event, the providing of the company with “wives for the season.”
Some had their regular helpmates, but others were forced to hire
women. Bargains were formally struck, and when a woman failed to give
satisfaction, she was exchanged for another. She was at once the slave
and the companion of her master. This is neither more nor less than
a regular system of prostitution; but it is gradually going out of
fashion, and is only carried on in a clandestine manner in the colonies
properly so called. Indeed this is, unfortunately, one of the chief
products of imperfect civilization--that vice, which before was open,
is driven into the dark; it is not extirpated, but is concealed. A man
offered his wife to the traveller Earl, and the woman was by no means
loth to prostitute herself for a donation. Barbarians readily acquire
the modes of vice practised by Europeans. In the criminal calendar of
Wellington for 1846, we find one native convicted and punished for
keeping a house of ill-fame.
Extraordinary as it may appear, prostitution in New Zealand has
tended to cure one great evil. It has largely checked the practice of
infanticide. For, as the female children were usually destroyed, it
was on the supposition that, instead of being valuable, they would be
burdensome to their parents. This continued to be the case until the
discovery was made that by prostituting the young girls considerable
profits might be made. It is to Europeans that the introduction of
this idea is chiefly owing. The females were then, in many cases,
carefully reared, and brought up to this dishonourable calling without
reluctance. No difficulty was ever experienced from their resistance,
as they would probably have become prostitutes of their own free will,
had they not been directed to the occupation. Slavery, which has from
the earliest time existed in New Zealand, has supplied the materials
of prostitution, female servants being consigned to it. When possessed
of any attractions they are almost invariably debauched by their
masters, and frequently suffer nameless punishments from the jealous
head wife. Concubinage does not, as in some other countries, release a
woman from servitude, but she enjoys a privilege which is denied to the
chief wife--she may marry again after her master’s death.
Formerly the general custom, however, was for a wife to hang, drown,
strangle, or starve herself on the death of her husband. Her relatives
often gave her a rope of flax, with which she retired to a neighbouring
thicket and died. It was not a peremptory obligation, but custom viewed
it as almost a sacred duty. Sometimes three of the wives destroyed
themselves, but generally one victim sufficed. Self-immolation is
now, indeed, becoming very rare; but it is still the practice for the
widow, whether she loved her husband or not, to lament him with loud
cries, and lacerate her flesh upon his tomb. Whenever she marries again
a priest is consulted to predict whether she will survive the second
husband or not. Occasionally we find instances of real attachment
between man and wife, such as would sanctify any family hearth; while
examples have occurred of women hanging themselves for sorrow, on the
death of a betrothed lover.
These, however, are only indications that humanity is not in New
Zealand universally debased below the brute condition. The general
colour of the picture is dark. Women are degraded; men are profligate;
virtue is unknown in its abstract sense; chastity is rare; and
prostitution a characteristic of female society. Fathers, mothers,
and brothers--usually the guardians of a young woman--prostitute her
for gain, and the women themselves delight in this vice. There is,
nevertheless, some amelioration observable in the manners of the
people, produced by the influence of the English colonies. Those
colonies themselves, however, are not free from the stain, as will be
shown when we treat of communities of that description in general[59].
OF PROSTITUTION IN THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.
Among the innumerable islands which are scattered over the surface
of the Pacific, we discover various phases of manners developed
under different influences. In some of the lonely groups lying out of
the usual course of trade or travel, communities exist whose social
habits remain entirely pure--that is, unchanged by intercourse with
foreigners. In others continual communication through a long period,
with white men, has wholly changed the characteristic aspects of
the people--given them a new religion, a new moral code, new ideas
of decency and virtue, new pleasures, and new modes of life. The
same process appears likely, at a future day, to obliterate the
ancient system of things. In all the islands of this class, indeed,
the reform of manners is not so thorough as the florid accounts of
the missionaries would induce us to believe; but those pioneers of
civilization have done enough, without assuming more than their due,
to deserve the praise of all Christendom. To have restrained the
fiercest passions of human nature among ignorant and wilful savages;
to have converted base libidinous heathens into decent Christians;
to have checked the practice of polygamy; and in many places to have
extinguished the crime of infanticide;--these are achievements which
entitle the missionaries to the applause and respect of Europe; but it
is no disparagement of their labours to show, where it is true, that
immense things yet remain to be performed before the islanders of the
Pacific are raised to the ordinary level of civilized humanity.
The main family of the Pacific--the Society, the Friendly, the
Sandwich, the Navigators’, and the Marquesas Islands--present a
state of society interesting and curious. Inhabiting one of the
most beautiful regions on the face of the earth, with every natural
advantage, the inhabitants of those groups were originally among the
most degraded of mankind. Superior to the savage hordes of Africa
and the wandering tribes of Australia, they are in physical and
intellectual qualities inferior to the natives of New Zealand, though
excelling them in simplicity and willingness to learn.
Tahiti may be considered the capital of Polynesia, as it is the head of
its politics, trade, and general civilization. Before the settlement
of the missionaries and the introduction of a new social scheme, its
manners were barbarous and disgusting. The condition of the female sex
corresponded to this order of things. It was humiliated to the last
degree. Most of the men, by a sacred rite, were rendered too holy for
any intercourse with the women except such as was pleasant to their
own lusts. It was similar to the _tapu_ of the New Zealanders, but was
not, as among them, common to all. It was an exclusive privilege of the
males. In consequence of this, women lived in a condition of exile from
all the pleasures of life. They never sat at meals with their husbands,
dared not eat the flesh of pigs, of fowls, of certain fish, or touch
the utensils used by the men. They never entered the houses of their
“_tabooed_” lords, dwelling in separate habitations, which these might
enter when they chose. Those of the royal blood, however, were excepted
from the action of this law. They might mingle with the other sex,
might inherit the throne, and enjoy the advantages of society. With
almost all others, beggary, toil, and degradation was the universal lot.