Part 37 (2/2)
In the Sandwich Islands there is no such chivalrous sentiment. At the arrival of the missionaries there were no marriage inst.i.tutions among them. The only laws were such as to regulate somewhat their licentiousness. There were traditions to show that at some past time, before the discovery of the island, the marriage tie had been held in respect by the natives, and that the marriage ceremony had been an important one. At present, personal chastis.e.m.e.nt of the wife by her husband is not infrequent, and it is spoken of by them as a matter of course.
The relations of parents to children differed much at different periods.
The Samoans seem to have been the most observant of moral obligations and natural ties. Among them it was the usage of the mothers to suckle the children for several years, and to bring them up with great care and attention, so much so that a crippled child was sometimes discreditable as evincing a degree of culpable carelessness in the mother.
The Society and Sandwich Islanders, whose lives were habitually dissolute, shunned all trouble which interfered with their freedom of intercourse, and children were considered especially burdensome. Infanticide prevailed to a frightful extent among them, and, as if the ordinary dissoluteness of the people had not been ample inducement to this most flagitious crime, the tyranny of the rulers invented a poll-tax, in whose operation children over ten were included. The poorer inhabitants of these blissful regions, who already felt the rod of oppression too severely, found in this an additional motive to child-murder. But in its operation it was even more cruel than infanticide, for many children who had been suffered to live were put to death as they approached the period when they would be liable to taxation. The murder was consummated sometimes by the parents, at times mercifully, and at times horribly. There were a cla.s.s of persons who practiced child-murder professionally.
In the Samoan group the girls are often early betrothed, without reference to years, the girl being taboo until of marriageable age. During the intervening period the bridegroom acc.u.mulates property. The marriage festival is held with all circ.u.mstances of uproar and debauchery, and the guests stay as long as there is any thing to eat. The consummation of the marriage and the virginity of the bride are published by the proofs required in the Jewish law.
When a man in this group wishes to take a wife, he must ask the chief's consent. This obtained, he presents to the girl of his choice a basket of bread-fruit, by accepting which she accepts the donor. The husband then pays the parents a sum of money for her, according to her rank and estimation; sometimes the courts.h.i.+p is to the family, without consulting the girl, who is expected to conform to her parents' will in the matter.
A Samoan may repudiate his wife and marry again on certain conditions, but the woman may not leave her husband without his consent.
Adultery among the Samoans was formerly punished by death, and the marriage vow is strictly observed by them. It is considered highly discreditable for a young woman to form a connection with a native before marriage, although temporary intercourse with a foreigner is not considered objectionable. It may be that such a distinction is in compliment to the conceded superiority of the white; but the explanation of a chief would rather put the question on convenience than morality, for he objected to native young men as always hanging about the premises, and attaching themselves to the young woman, whereas the foreigner gave his presents and sailed away when the period of his stay was ended, leaving the object of his choice free again.
The Marquesas Islands have a singular inst.i.tution, similar to one prevalent among the ancient Lacedaemonians. A woman has more than one husband. This has been called polyandrism, but it does not seem precisely such. A wife of a young warrior unknown to fame is honored by the advances of a more distinguished individual, by whom children may be begotten. The superior chief takes the wife and her lawful husband under his protection and into his hut.
The population of some of the districts in the Sandwich Islands is rapidly decreasing. By a register kept in Hawaii, it appears there are three deaths to one birth. This disproportion is attributed to low habit of body, the consequence of venereal disease. Syphilis was introduced into these islands by Cook's expedition, and the whole of the natives in some districts are now said to be reduced to a morbid, sickly state, many of the women being incapable of child-bearing, and but few of the children attaining maturity.
There are other concurrent causes to contribute toward this decay, among which the difference of food, and the introduction of clothing, and consequent diminution of ablution among a people who spent half their lives in the water, are not unimportant; but the district of Hanapepe, where the decrease was most rapid, was that in which the virus was first introduced, and here it is still most virulent in its action and effects.
Whatever the causes, the same effect is in powerful operation, though not to the same depopulating extent, in other places. At Waialua, in 1832, the population was 2640; in 1835 it had fallen to 2415. There had been no war nor epidemic. It was the ordinary condition of the people. Sterility and abortion are considered the most potent causes. Abortion is very common, and there are cases in which women have had six or seven, and sometimes ten in as many years, and no children.[369]
Personal and mutual abuse had been much practiced in early life among the settlers, and is a cause of sterility.
Previous to 1840, infanticide was, as we have shown, common. But here, as elsewhere, the marriage regulations which have been enforced by the missionaries and adopted by the converted natives are already operating in a reactionary manner against the decrease of population, and infanticide is almost unknown. The poll-tax for children over ten years of age has been repealed, and in its stead premiums are given for rearing large families of legitimate children.
It is admitted by all that licentiousness prevails extensively among the people even at present, but to a far less degree than formerly, when promiscuous intercourse was universal. Men were living with several wives, and _vice versa_. All improvement in this respect is to be ascribed to the labors of Christian missionaries. To them the Sandwich Islanders owe their moral code, and the enactment of laws respecting marriage, as well as their political inst.i.tutions.
The observance of outward morality and decency of behavior has, as we have mentioned, been made compulsory in those islands in which the missionaries have permanently fixed themselves, and acquired sufficient power to make their regulations respected. They have interdicted public gatherings for the purpose of amus.e.m.e.nt, and even suppressed private games and diversions. This has been objected to as an interference with innocent recreation and pastime, and as encouraging formalism.
But the missionaries had no choice in the matter. Paganism was deeply rooted in the daily life and habits of the people. In all religious festivals, feasting, dancing, and diversion formed so prominent a part, that the only method of eradicating the attachment of the people to their heathen practices was to abolish the usages which made the wors.h.i.+p attractive. The dances are always immodest, often lascivious and grossly indecent. They consist of little more than contortions and twistings of the limbs and body, and of throwing themselves into postures which, as they are mostly performed by females, are highly conducive to immorality.
Even among the Samoans, the dances, as performed by the women, are of the same libidinous character with the others, though the dances of the men are not indecorous.
The diseases generally prevalent are skin affections. From the delightful climate and simple diet of the people, these are not of a very severe character. The islanders have been no gainers in this respect by their intercourse with Europeans. The venereal disease has been introduced, and, from the deficiency of medical treatment, makes great ravages.
Secondary syphilis is sometimes severe. At Tutuila, one of the Samoan group, it is said that venereal disease is entirely unknown, while in the other islands of the group it is very rare.
Political circ.u.mstances; the introduction of new elements into Polynesian life; the daily increasing intercourse between the islanders and foreigners, all contribute to make the alterations in the social aspects of the South Sea Islands very rapid, so that every year may work new changes. Some recent writers affect to doubt the benefits of missionary labors among the islanders, who, as they say, have been thereby diverted from their innocent and simple habits of life; in place of which, it is alleged, a harsh and hypocritical austerity has been adopted; the purity of their morals and the vigor of their const.i.tutions have been sapped and destroyed by the contact with Europeans and Americans, and the whole result of foreign intercourse has been unmixed evil. We reject these conclusions, as savoring too strongly of party prejudice and cla.s.s antipathies. The tendency of the Gospel always is to purify and elevate savage tribes. The missionaries have, perhaps, overestimated and overstated the extent of benefit accomplished by them, and the gayety and cheerfulness, so pleasing in appearance to the casual visitor, yet so deceptive in reality, may have been diminished. But the purity of savage life is a delusion, and something has been achieved if only an outward conformity to the laws and dictates of Christianity has been produced.
WEST INDIES.
A very slight notice of the West Indies will suffice, for of the savage races scarcely a vestige remains; of the negro population a general view is all that is required, and the civilized colonists retain so much of the impress of the countries whence they came as to require no special remarks. When Columbus first visited these beautiful islands, he found them inhabited by two cla.s.ses of men--the savage Caribs, who delighted in war and preyed upon the weaker tribes; and the simple communities, whose pacific habits made them victims of their violent neighbors. The people were alike distinct in the treatment of women. The peaceful islanders admitted females to a partic.i.p.ation in all the delights of their rural life, allowing them to mingle in the dance, to inherit power, and to share all their pleasures. Among the cannibal Caribs a different fas.h.i.+on prevailed. The handsomest of their war-prisoners were retained as slaves, the rest were drowned. The lot of these exiles, as of the Carib women themselves, was hard enough. The nation was low and barbarous, and its women were treated accordingly, the men regarding them as an inferior race, whose degradation was only natural. A wife was her husband's slave, and all the drudgery of life fell upon her. She approached him with abject humility, and, if she ever complained of ill-usage, it was at the risk of her life; her children, however, were loved and watched with tender care.
The original inhabitants of the West Indian islands have disappeared, and are succeeded by a mixture of races, of whom the negroes claim our attention now. Among the blacks of Antigua, as an example, immorality is characteristic. Infanticide is frequently practiced, even since the Emanc.i.p.ation Bill was pa.s.sed. The reason for this is clear. Under slavery, negroes could not contract a legal marriage; they therefore cohabited, and the union lasted as long as their affection or appet.i.te existed. No disgrace attached to a woman who had borne children to several men. Now an idea of female virtue has been awakened, and they seek to escape the consequences of an illicit amour by destroying its offspring, upon the principle that where no tangible evidence of a crime exists, no crime has been committed.
During slavery, concubinage was general; and although many masters offered rewards to such as lived faithfully with one partner, the vice was all but universal, and a permanent engagement between a man and woman was seldom formed. Two females frequently lived with one man, one being considered his wife, and the other his mistress. When the negroes were emanc.i.p.ated in 1834, many were anxious to be legally married, and others put away the partners of their compulsory servitude and took new companions. Bigamy was not uncommon then, nor is it rare now, many devices being adopted to elude the stringent laws on this matter. Concubinage is less general than formerly, but the marriage covenant is by no means respected, nor is chast.i.ty much esteemed.
In St. Lucia s.e.xual intercourse was unrestrained and almost promiscuous, and the negroes of the island are, even to this day, averse to matrimony and inclined to concubinage. In either relation they are equally faithless, the only redeeming feature being love of their children.
<script>