Show WEDDINGS IN MAORI LAND the maoris laoris of new zealand are not in the strictest sense aborigines they are a people with a distinct personality and are as a race beautiful until sixty years ago to be a maori was to be a cannibal infanticide of girl babies was and is common age was and is revered slavery and polygamy are more or less common women have flourishing rights in often they have little voice in their choice of a husband a first husband 1 hut but they may and do often change him trade him or exchange him without the slightest loss of reputation courtship does not often precede marriage and is at most brief yet the maoris laoris have their love tales beautiful and poetical in sentiment divorce is as simple as the marriage rites which are conspicuous by their absence when a husband and wife wish to separate the man simple turns his wife out of doors and there are no legal I 1 A MAORI MAIDEN ties chiefs and freemen may have several wives dignity dignify and rank being thus indicated |