s
and observations were afterward recorded by Martin, gives information
which indicates that Cook was wrong when he said that a more civilized
people does not exist under the sun. "Theft, revenge, rape and
murder," Mariner attests (II., 140), "under many circumstances are not
held to be crimes." It is considered the duty of married women to
remain true to their husbands and this, Mariner thinks, is generally
done. Unmarried women "may bestow their favors upon whomsoever they
please, without any opprobrium" (165). Divorced women, like the
unmarried, may admit temporary lovers without the least reproach or
secresy.

"When a woman is taken prisoner (in war) she generally has
to submit; but this is a thing of course, and considered
neither an outrage nor dishonor; the only dishonor being to
be a prisoner and consequently a sort of servant to the
conqueror. Rape, though always considered an outrage, is not
looked upon as a crime unless the woman be of such rank as
to claim respect from the perpetrator" (166).

Many of their expressions, when angry, are

"too indelicate to mention." "Conversation is often
intermingled with allusions, even when women are present,
which could not be allowed in any decent society in
England."

Two-thirds of the women

"are married and are soon divorced, and are married again
perhaps three, four, or five times in their lives." "No man
is understood to be bound to conjugal fidelity; it is no
reproach to him to intermix his amours." "Neither have they
any word expressive of chastity except _nofo mow_, remaining
fixed or faithful, and which in this sense is only applied
to a married woman to signify her fidelity to her husband."

Even the married women of the lower classes had to yield to the wishes
of the chiefs, who did not hesitate to shoot a resisting husband.
(Waitz-Gerland, VI., 184.)

While these details show that Captain Cook overrated the civilization
of the Tongans, there are other facts indicating that they were in
some respects superior to other Polynesians, at any rate. The women
are capable of blushing, and they are reproached if they change their
lovers too often. They seem to have a dawning sense of the value of
chastity and of woman's claims to consideration. In Mariner's
description (I., 130) of a chief's wedding occurs this sentence:

"The dancing being over, one of the old m