Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/131

 of faith, who admit in a distant antiquity the existence of a matriarchal régime assigning to woman the chief place in the family. But let us continue our inquiry.

In Polynesia marriage by purchase was habitual. In New Zealand the man bought the girl, and offered presents to her parents.

Generally in Polynesia the suitor offered pigs, stuffs, etc. If his demand was granted, the bargain was quickly concluded; the girl was there and then delivered to the husband; a Polynesian bed was arranged in the house of the bride's father, and the newly-married couple passed the night there. The next day a feast was celebrated, to which friends were invited, and which consisted of several pigs.

At Tahiti temporary marriages were also concluded, and in this case the presents of pigs, stuffs, pigeons, etc., varied in amount according to the length of the union.

But, in spite of the sale, the Polynesian father always retained over his daughter the prior right of ownership, and when the presents seemed to him to be insufficient, he took back the merchandise to let or sell it to a more generous lover. If a child was born, the husband was free to kill the infant, which was done by applying a piece of wet stuff to the mouth and nose, or to let it live, but in the latter case he generally kept the wife for the whole of her life. If the union was sterile, or the children put to death, the man had always the right to abandon the woman when and how it seemed good to him. She was a slave that he had bought, and that he could get rid of at will.

On the great American continent, from north to south the custom of the sale of the daughter is common to a great number of peoples. With the Redskins female merchandise is generally paid for in horses and blankets. When the daughter had been sold to a white man and then abandoned, as frequently happened, the parents resumed possession of her, and sold her a second time.