remained away a long time it generally ended, when they returned and met her father, by an all-round fight. Clubs and shields were the weapons used on each other, and knives were used on women, being drawn across thick or muscular parts, such as the thigh, with a long gash. Another way of obtaining a wife was by the exchange of a female relative.
In the Turrbal tribe, which occupied the country about Brisbane, girls were betrothed when three or four years of age. Thus wives were obtained by gift or the exchange of female relations, sometimes also by abduction. Girls who had been betrothed were given to their future husbands when of nubile age. When the Wide Bay, Burnet, and Brisbane tribes met for the purpose of "making young men," the daughters of one tribe were given to the great men, or their sons, of the other tribe. In such a marriage all the respective relations on each side were considered to be related to each other, and could travel in the country of either tribe without danger. A woman was sometimes given as a reward for some heroic action. In making these marriage arrangements the mothers were seldom or never consulted. The marriage ceremony was merely that the father and mother led their daughter up to their son-in-law's hut, and left her there. From this time the mother and her daughter's husband never looked at or spoke to each other. It was considered monstrous for a man to marry his brother's widow, and it was never done, but he had a voice in giving her to another.[1]
Tribes with Eight Sub-Classes and Male Descent
North of Lake Eyre, and commencing at the northern boundary of the Urabunna tribe, there is a vast series of tribes with descent in the male line. They extend not only through Central but also into Northern Australia.
Not only have these tribes the four sub-class system, but, as mentioned in a previous chapter, there has been a further division, making eight.
Those in Central Australia which are represented by the Arunta are described fully in the great work of Spencer and
- ↑ Tom Petrie.
