This holds true of many of the islands of Polynesia, although the reverse of what is the case in most civilized countries.

The girls are first wooed and won, at a very tender age, by some stripling in the household in which they reside.
This, however, is a mere frolic of the affections, and no formal engagement is contracted.

By the time this first love has a little subsided, a second suitor presents himself, of graver years, and carries both boy and girl away to his own habitation.

This disinterested and generous-hearted fellow now weds the young couple--marrying damsel and lover at the same time--and all three thenceforth live together as harmoniously as so many turtles.

I have heard of some men who in civilized countries rashly marry large families with their wives, but had no idea that there was any place where people married supplementary husbands with them.