Port, or Geelong tribe. Thus a kind of social compact is formed against any distant tribe who might intrude upon their country, when all united to expel the intruder."[1]
Diagram XXIII
I. m. Bunjil -<- 2. m. Bunjil 8. m. Waang -> 9. m. Waang (elder brother) (elder brother) . f. Waang 4. f. Waang 10. f. Bunjil 11. f. Bunjil . ni, Bunjil 6. m. Bunjil 7. f. Bunjil 12. m. Waang 13. f. Waang 14. m. Waang
This diagram may be compared with that given for the Wotjobaluk. No. 12 is Berak, and 8 is his father, Bebejern. The two elder brothers, Bunjil No. 1, and Waang No. 9, arranged for the mutual exchange in marriage of the children 6 and 13, and 7 and 12 of their respective younger brothers. The man Bebejern, No. 8, and his elder brother, No. 9, were Wurunjerri, living on the Yarra River, and 1 and 2 were of the Ngurai-ilam-baluk, living on the Upper Goulburn River. In making these matrimonial arrangements the brothers of the girl had a voice, and we may perhaps recognise in this a trace of maternal descent, as well as the exercise of their individual interest. It was the father of a girl who disposed of his daughter through and by his elder brother, but before doing so he talked the matter over with his wife. In the example given, it was No. 14, the son of Bebejern's elder brother, who gave away the sister of No. 12, while similarly it was the elder brother, No. 5, of the Ngurai-ilam girl. No. 7, who gave her in exchange. But this actual exchange of the girls took place only by the authority of the respective fathers, when the assembled old men had decided that the girls were old enough to be married. Each girl would then be sent away under the care of her elder brother, who brought back his brother's future wife. It is as well to note that 5 and 6, being the sons of brothers, are also brothers, and that 5, being the son of the elder brother, is also the elder. These marriages were of much importance to the tribes, since in the case mentioned, the men to whom the Ngurai-ilam
- ↑ Evidence taken before a Committee of the Legislative Council of Victoria, 1858, p. 68.
