IT had chanced (as the CASCO beat through the Bordelais Straits for Taahauku)she approached on one board very near the land in the opposite isle of Tauata,where houses were to be seen in a grove of tall coco-palms.Brother Michel pointed out the spot.'I am at home now,'said he.'I believe I have a large share in these cocoa-nuts;and in that house madame my mother lives with her two husbands!''With two husbands?'somebody inquired.'C'EST MAHONTE,'replied the brother drily.
A word in passing on the two husbands.I conceive the brother to have expressed himself loosely.It seems common enough to find a native lady with two consorts;but these are not two husbands.The first is still the husband;the wife continues to be referred to by his name;and the position of the coadjutor,or PIKIO,although quite regular,appears undoubtedly subordinate.We had opportunities to observe one household of the sort.The PIKIO was recognised;appeared openly along with the husband when the lady was thought to be insulted,and the pair made common cause like brothers.At home the inequality was more apparent.The husband sat to receive and entertain visitors;the PIKIO was running the while to fetch cocoa-nuts like a hired servant,and I remarked he was sent on these errands in preference even to the son.Plainly we have here no second husband;plainly we have the tolerated lover.Only,in the Marquesas,instead of carrying his lady's fan and mantle,he must turn his hand to do the husband's housework.
The sight of Brother Michel's family estate led the conversation for some while upon the method and consequence of artificial kinship.Our curiosity became extremely whetted;the brother offered to have the whole of us adopted,and some two days later we became accordingly the children of Paaaeua,appointed chief of Atuona.I was unable to be present at the ceremony,which was primitively simple.The two Mrs.Stevensons and Mr.Osbourne,along with Paaaeua,his wife,and an adopted child of theirs,son of a shipwrecked Austrian,sat down to an excellent island meal,of which the principal and the only necessary dish was pig.Aconcourse watched them through the apertures of the house;but none,not even Brother Michel,might partake;for the meal was sacramental,and either creative or declaratory of the new relationship.In Tahiti things are not so strictly ordered;when Ori and I 'made brothers,'both our families sat with us at table,yet only he and I,who had eaten with intention were supposed to be affected by the ceremony.For the adoption of an infant I believe no formality to be required;the child is handed over by the natural parents,and grows up to inherit the estates of the adoptive.Presents are doubtless exchanged,as at all junctures of island life,social or international;but I never heard of any banquet -the child's presence at the daily board perhaps sufficing.We may find the rationale in the ancient Arabian idea that a common diet makes a common blood,with its derivative axiom that 'he is the father who gives the child its morning draught.'