Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/69

MARRIAGE. 11 appears generally to go very unwillingly; the brother or relation who gives her away walks silently and with downcast looks by himself. As soon as they approach the camp of the other tribe the women and children of the latter must quit the hut, which upon this occasion is built larger than their huts usually are. When they arrive at the hut one of the men invites them to take their places, but before they sit down the bride and bridegroom are placed next each other, and also the brother and his intended wife if it is a double marriage. The friends and relations then take their places on each side of the principal parties. They sit in this manner silent for a considerable time until most of them fall asleep. At daybreak the brides leave the hut and go to their nearest relations and remain with them until the evening, when they are conducted to their husbands by their female friends, and the tribes then separate and go to their own districts. When married very young, the girl is frequently away from her husband upon a visit to her relations for several months at a time, but should she remain the man is under obligation to provide her with animal food (providing vegetable food is always the duty of the females), and if she pleases him he shows his affection by frequently rubbing her with grease to improve her personal appearance and with the idea that it will make her grow rapidly and become fat. If a man has several girls at his disposal, he speedily obtains several wives, who, however, very seldom agree well with each other, but are continually quarrelling, each endeavouring to be the favourite. The man, regarding them more as slaves than in any other light, employs them in every possible way to his own advantage. They are obliged to get him shell-fish, roots, and eatable plants." Now I have but little to add to these statements. It is regarded by the females as very disgraceful not to be given away in exchange for another. A young woman who goes away with a man and lives with him as his wife without the consent of her relatives is regarded as very little better than a prostitute. She is always open to the taunt that she had nothing given for her.