into serious account in regard to the question of sexual relations
amongst the Central Australian tribes."

The customs described by these authors show, moreover, that these
savages _do not allow jealousy to stand in the way of sexual
communism_, a man who refuses to share his wife being considered
churlish, in one class of cases, while in another no choice is allowed
him, the matter being arranged by the tribe. This point has not
heretofore been sufficiently emphasized. It knocks away one of the
strongest props of the anti-promiscuity theory, and it is supported by
the remarks of Howitt,[168] who, after explaining how, among the
Dieri, couples are chosen by headmen without consulting their
wishes,--new allotments being made at each circumcision ceremony--and
how the dance is followed by a general license, goes on to relate that
all these matters are carefully arranged _so as to prevent jealousy_.
Sometimes this passion breaks out nevertheless, leading to bloody
quarrels; but the main point is that systematic efforts are made to
suppress jealousy: "No jealous feeling is allowed to be shown during
this time under penalty of strangling." Whence we may fairly infer
that under more primitive conditions the individual was allowed still
less right to assert jealous claims of individual possession.

Australian jealousy presents some other interesting aspects, but we
shall be better able to appreciate them if we first consider why a
native ever puts himself into a position where jealous watchfulness of
private property is called for.


WHY DO AUSTRALIANS MARRY?

Since chastity among the young of both sexes is not held of any
account, and since the young girls, who are married to men four or
five times their age, are always ready for an intrigue with a young
bachelor, why does an Australian ever marry? He does not marry for
love, for, as this whole chapter proves, he is incapable of such a
sentiment. His appetites need not urge him to marry, since there are
so many ways of appeasing them outside of matrimony. He does not marry
to enjoy a monopoly of a woman's favors, since he is ready to share
them with others. Why then does he marry? One reason may be that, as
the men get older (they seldom marry before they are twenty-five or
even thirty), they have less relish for the dangers connected with
woman-stealing and intrigues. A second reason is indicated in Hewitt's
explanation (_Jour. Anthr. Inst_., XX., 58), that it is an advantage
to an Australian to have as many wives as possible, as they work and
hunt for him, and "he also obtains great influence in the tribe by
lending them his Piraurus occasionally, and receiving presents from
the young men."

The main reason, however, why an Australian marries is in order that
he may have a drudge. I have previously cited Eyre's statement that
the natives

"value a wife principally as a slave; in fact, when
asked why they are anxious to obtain wives, their usual
reply is, that they may get wood, water, and food for
them, and carry whatever property they possess."

H. Kempe (_loc. cit_., 55) says that

"if there are plenty of girls they are married as early
as possible (at the age of eight to ten), as far as
possible to one and the same man, for as it is the duty
of the women to provide food, a man who has several
wives can enjoy his leisure the more thoroughly."

And Lindsay Cranford testifies (_Jour. Anthrop. Inst_., XXIV., 181)
regarding the Victoria River natives that,

"after about thirty years of age a man is allowed to have as
many women as he likes, and the older he gets the younger
the girls are that he gets, probably to work and get food
for him, for in their wild state the man is too proud to do
anything except carry a woomera and spear."

Under these circumstances it is needless to say that there is not a
trace of romance connected with an Australian marriage. After a man
has secured his girl, she quietly submits and goes with him as his
wife and drudge, to build his camp, gather firewood, fetch water, make
nets, clear away grass, dig roots, fish for mussels, be his baggage
mule on journeys, etc. (Brough Smyth, 84); and Eyre (II., 319) thus
completes the picture. There is, he says, no marriage ceremony:

"In those cases where I have witnessed the giving away
of a wife, the woman was simply ordered by the nearest
male relative in whose disposal she was, to take up her
'rocko,' the bag in which a female carries the effects
of her husband, and go to the man's camp to whom she
had been given."


CURIOSITIES OF JEALOUSY

Thus the woman becomes the man's slave--his property in every sense of
the word. No matter how he obtained her--by capture, elopement, or
exchange for another woman--she is his own, as much as his spear or
his boomerang. "The husband is the absolute owner of the wife," says
Curr (I., 109). To cite Eyre once more (318):

"Wives are considered the absolute property of the
husband, and can be given away, or exchanged, or lent,
according to his caprice. A husband is denominated in
the Adelaide dialect, Yongarra, Martanya (the owner or
proprietor of a wife)."

A whole chapter in sociology is sometimes summed up in a word, as we
see in this case. Another instance is the word _gramma_, concerning
which we read in Lumholtz (126):

"The robbery of women, who also among these savages are
regarded as _a man's most valuable property_, is both
the grossest and the most common theft; for it is the
usual way of getting a wife. Hence woman is the chief
cause of disputes. _Inchastity_, which is called
_gramma, i.e._, to steal, also _falls under the head of
theft_."

Here we have a simple and concise explanation of Australian jealousy.
The native knows jealousy in its crudest form--that of mere animal
rage at being prevented by a rival from taking immediate possession of
the object of his desire. He knows also the jealousy of
property--_i.e._, revenge for infringement on it. Of this it is
needless to give examples. But he knows not true jealousy--_i.e._,
anxious concern for his wife's chastity and fidelity, since he is
always ready to barter these things for a trifle. Proofs of this have
already been adduced in abundance. Here is another authoritative
statement by the missionary Schurmann, who writes (223):

"The loose practices of the aborigines, with regard to
the sanctity of matrimony, form the worst trait in
their character; although the men are capable of fierce
jealousy if their wives transgress _unknown to them_,
yet they frequently send them out to other parties, or
exchange with a friend for a night; and, as for near
relatives, such as brothers, it may almost be said that
they have their wives in common."

An incident related by W.H. Leigh (152) shows in a startling way that
among the Australians jealousy means nothing more than a desire for
revenge because of infringement on property rights:

"A chief discovered that one of his wives had been
sinning, and called a council, at which it was decided
that the criminal should be sacrificed, or the
adulterous chief give a victim to appease the wrathful
husband. This was agreed to and he _gave one of his
wives_, who was immediately escorted to the side of the
river ... and there the ceremony was preluded by a
war-song, and the enraged chief rushed upon the
innocent and unfortunate victim--bent down her head
upon her chest, whilst another thrust the pointed bone
of a kangaroo under her left rib, and drove it upwards
into her heart. The shrieks of the poor wretch brought
down to the spot many colonists, who arrived in time
only to see the conclusion of the horrid spectacle.
After they had buried the bone in her body they took
their glass-pointed spears and tore her entrails out,
and finally fractured her skull with their waddies.
This barbarous method of wreaking vengeance is common
among them."[169]

The men being indifferent to female chastity, it would be vain to
expect true jealousy on the part of the women. The men are entirely
unrestrained in their appetites unless they interfere with other men's
property rights, and in a community where polygamy prevails the
jealousy which is based in a monopoly of affection has little chance
to flourish. Taplin says (101) that

"a wife amongst the heathen aborigines has no objection
to her husband taking another spouse, provided she is
younger than herself, but if he brings home one older
than herself there is apt to be trouble"

as the senior wife is "mistress of the camp," and in such a case the
first wife is apt to run away. Vanity and envy, or the desire to be
the favorite, thus appear to be the principal ingredients in an
Australian woman's jealousy. Meyer (191) says of the Encounter Bay
tribe:

"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
quarreling, each endeavoring to be the favorite."

This, it will be observed, is the jealousy two pet dogs will feel of
each other, and is utterly different from modern conjugal or lover's
jealousy, which is chiefly based on an ardent regard for chastity and
unswerving fidelity. In this phase jealousy is a noble and useful
passion, helping to maintain the purity of the family; whereas, in the
phase that prevails among savages it is utterly selfish and brutal.
Palmer says[170] that "a new woman would always be beaten by the other
wife, and a good deal would depend on the fighting powers of the
former whether she kept her position or not." "Among the Kalkadoon,"
writes Roth (141),

"where a man may have three, four, or even five gins, the
discarded ones will often, through jealousy, fight with her
whom they consider more favored. On such occasions they may
often resort to stone-throwing, or even use fire-sticks and
stone-knives with which to mutilate the genitals."

Lumholtz says (213) the black women "often have bitter quarrels about
men whom they love and are anxious to marry. If the husband is
unfaithful, the wife frequently becomes greatly enraged."

George Grey (II., 312-14) gives an amusing sketch of an aboriginal
scene of conjugal bliss. Weerang, an old man, has four wives, the last
of whom, just added to the harem, gets all his attention. This excites
the anger of one of the older ones, who reproaches the husband with
having stolen her, an unwilling bride, from another and better man.
"May the sorcerer," she adds, "bite and tear her whom you have now
taken to your bed. Here am I, rebuking young men who dare to look at
me, while she, your favorite, replete with arts and wiles, dishonors
you." This last insinuation is too much for the young favorite, who
retorts by calling her a liar and declaring that she has often seen
her exchanging nods and winks with her paramour. The rival's answer is
a blow with her stick. A general engagement follows, which the old man
finally ends by beating several of the wives severely about the head
with a hammer.[171]


PUGNACIOUS FEMALES

Jealousy is capable of converting even civilized women into fiends;
all the more these bush women, who have few opportunities for
cultivating the gentler feminine qualities. Indeed, so masculine are
these women that were it not for woman's natural inferiority in
strength their tyrants might find it hard to subdue them. Bulmer
says[172] that

"as a rule both husband and wife had fearful tempers;
there was no bearing and forbearing. When they
quarrelled it was a matter of the strongest conquering,
for neither would give in."

Describing a native fight over some trifling cause Taplin says (71):

"Women were dancing about naked, casting dust in the
air, hurling obscene language at their enemies, and
encouraging their friends. It was a perfect tempest of
rage."

Roth says of the Queensland natives that the women fight like men,
with thick, heavy fighting poles, four feet long.

"One of the combatants, with her hands between her
knees, supposing that only one stick is available,
ducks her head slightly--almost in the position of a
school-boy playing leap-frog, and waits for her
adversary's blow, which she receives on the top of her
head. The attitudes are now reversed, and the one just
attacked is now the attacking party. Blow for blow is
thus alternated until one of them gives in, which is
generally the case after three or four hits. Great
animal pluck is sometimes displayed.... Should a woman
ever put up her hand or a stick, etc., to ward a blow,
she would be regarded in the light of a coward" (141).

"At Genorminston, the women coming up to join a fray
give a sort of war-whoop; they will jump up in the air,
and as their feet, a little apart, touch the ground,
they knock up the dust and sand with the fighting-pole,
etc., held between their legs, very like one's early
reminiscences in the picture-books of a witch riding a
broom-stick."

"The ferocity of the women when excited exceeds that of the men," Grey
informs us (II., 314); "they deal dreadful blows at one another," etc.

For some unexplained reason--possibly a vague sense of fair play which
in time may lead to the beginnings of gallantry--there is one
occasion, an initiation ceremonial, at which women are allowed to have
their innings while the men are dancing. On this occasion, says Roth
(176),

"each woman can exercise her right of punishing any man
who may have ill-treated, abused, or hammered her, and
for whom she may have waited months or perhaps years to
chastise; for, as each pair appear around the corner at
the entrance exposed to her view, the woman and any of
her female friends may take a fighting-pole and belabor
the particular culprit to their heart's content, the
delinquent not being allowed to retaliate in any way
whatsoever--the only occasion in the whole of her life
when the woman can take the law into her own hands
without fear or favor."


WIFE STEALING

This last assertion is not strictly accurate. There are other
occasions when women take the law into their hands, especially when
men try to steal them, an every-day occurrence, at least in former
times. Thus W.H. Leigh writes of the South Australians (152):

"Their manner of courtship is one which would not be
popular among English ladies. If a chief, or any other
individual, be smitten by a female of a different
tribe, he endeavors to waylay her; and if she be
surprised in any quiet place, the ambushed lover rushes
upon her, beats her about the head with his waddy till
she becomes senseless, when she is dragged in triumph
to his hut. It sometimes happens, however, that she has
a thick skull, and resents his blows, when a battle
ensues, and not unfrequently ends in the discomfiture
of the Adonis."

Similarly G.B. Wilkinson describes how the young men go, usually in
groups of two or three, to capture brides of hostile tribes. They lurk
about in concealment till they see that the women are alone, when they
pounce upon them and, either by persuasion or blows, take away those
they want; whereupon they try to regain their own tribe before pursuit
can be attempted. "This stealing of wives is one cause of the frequent
wars that take place amongst the natives."

Barrington's _History of New South Wales_ is adorned with the picture
of a big naked man having beside him, on her back, a beautifully
formed naked girl whom he is dragging away by one arm. The monster, we
read in the text, has come upon her unawares, clubbed her on the head
and other parts of the body,

"then snatching up one of her arms, he drags her,
streaming with blood from her wounds, through the
woods, over stones, rocks, hills, and logs, with all
the violence and determination of a savage," etc.

Curr (I., 237) objects to this picture as a gross exaggeration. He
also declares (I., 108) that it is only on rare occasions that a wife
is captured from another tribe and carried off, and that at present
woman-stealing is not encouraged, as it is apt to involve a whole
tribe in war for one man's sake. From older writers, however, one gets
the impression that wife-stealing was a common custom. Howitt (351)
remarks concerning the "wild white man" William Buckley, who lived
many years among the natives, and whose adventures were written up by
John Morgan, that at first sight his statements "seem to record merely
a series of duels and battles about women who were stolen, speared,
and slaughtered;" and Brough Smyth (77) quotes John Bulmer, who says
that among the Gippsland natives

"sometimes a man who has no sister [to swap] will, in
desperation, steal a wife; but this is invariably a
cause of bloodshed. Should a woman object to go with
her husband, violence would be used. I have seen a man
drag away a woman by the hair of her head. Often a club
is used until the poor creature is frightened into
submission."

In South Australia there is a special expression for
bride-stealing--_Milla mangkondi,_ or force-marriage. (Bonwick, 65.)

Mitchell (I., 307) also observed that the possession of the women
"seems to be associated with all their ideas of fighting." The same
impression is conveyed by the writings of Salvado, Wilkes, and
others--Sturt, _e.g._, who wrote (II., 283) that the abduction of a
married or unmarried woman was a frequent cause of quarrel. Mitchell
(I., 330) relates that when some whites told a native that they had
killed a native of another tribe, his first thought and only remark
was, "Stupid white fellows! Why did you not bring away the gins
(women)?" It is unfortunate for a woman to possess the kind of
"beauty" Australians admire for, as Grey says (II., 231),

"The early life of a young woman at all celebrated for
beauty is generally one continued series of captivity
to different masters, of ghastly wounds, of wanderings
in strange families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment
from other females amongst whom she is brought a
stranger by her captor; and rarely do you see a form of
unusual grace and elegance but it is marked and scarred
by the furrows of old wounds; and many a female thus
wanders several hundred miles from the home of her
infancy."

It is not only from other and hostile tribes that these men forcibly
appropriate girls or married women. Among the Hunter River tribes
(Curr, III., 353), "men renowned as warriors frequently attacked their
inferiors in strength and took their wives from them." The Queensland
natives, we are told by Narcisse Peltier, who lived among them
seventeen years, "not unfrequently fight with spears for the
possession of a woman" (Spencer, _P.S._, I., 601). Lumholtz says (184)
that "the majority of the young men wait a long time before they get
wives, partly for the reason that they have not the courage to fight
the requisite duel for one with an older man." On another page (212)
he relates:

"Near Herbert Vale I had the good fortune to be able to
witness a marriage among the blacks. A camp of natives
was just at the point of breaking up, when an old man
suddenly approached a woman, seized her by the wrist of
her left hand and shouted _Yongul ngipa_!--that is,
This one belongs to me (literally 'one I'). She
resisted with feet and hands, and cried, but he dragged
her off, though she made resistance during the whole
time and cried at the top of her voice. For a mile away
we could hear her shrieks.... But the women always make
resistance, for they do not like to leave their tribe,
and in many instances they have the best of reasons for
kicking their lovers. If a man thinks he is strong
enough, he will take hold of any woman's hand and utter
his _yongul ngipa_. If a woman is good-looking, all the
men want her, and the one who is most influential, or
who is the strongest, is accordingly generally the
victor."


SWAPPING GIRLS

It is obvious that when women are forcibly appropriated at home or
stolen from other tribes, their inclination or choice is not
consulted. A man wants a woman and she is seized, _nolens volens_,
whether married or single. If she gets a man she likes, it is a mere
accident, not likely to occur often. The same is true of another form
of Australian "courtship" which may be called swapping girls, and
which is far the most common way of getting a wife. Curr, after forty
years' experience with native affairs, wrote (I., 107) that "the
Australian male _almost invariably_ obtains his wife or wives, either
as the survivor of a married brother, or in exchange for his sisters
or daughters." The Rev. H.E.A. Meyer says (10) that the marriage
ceremony

"may with great propriety be considered an exchange, for no
man can obtain a wife unless he can promise to give his
sister or other relative in exchange.... Should the father
be living he may give his daughter away, but generally she
is the gift of the brother ... the girls have no choice in
the matter, and frequently the parties have never seen each
other before.... If a man has several girls at his disposal,
he speedily obtains several wives,"

Eyre (II., 318) declares that

"the females, especially the young ones, are kept
principally among the old men, who barter away their
daughters, sisters, or nieces, in exchange for wives for
themselves or their sons."

Grey (II., 230) says the same thing in different words:

"The old men manage to keep the females a good deal
amongst themselves, giving their daughters to one
another, and the more female children they have, the
greater chance have they of getting another wife, by
this sort of exchange."

Brough Smyth thus sums up (II., 84) the information on this subject he
obtained from divers sources. A yam-stick is given to a girl when she
reaches the age of marriage; with this she drives away any young man
she does not fancy, for a mere "no" would not keep him at bay. "The
women never initiate matches;" these are generally arranged between
two young men who have sisters to exchange. "The young woman's opinion
is not asked." When the young man is ready to "propose" to the girl he
has bartered his sister for, he walks up to her equipped as for
war--ready to parry her "love-taps" if she feels inclined that way.
"After a little fencing between the pair the woman, if she has no
serious objections to the man, quietly submits." If she _has_ "serious
objections," what happens? The same writer tells us graphically (76):

"By what mode soever a man procures a bride, it is very
seldom an occasion of rejoicing by the female. The
males engross the privilege of disposing of their
female relatives, and it often happens that an old man
of sixty or seventy will add to his domestic circle a
young girl of ten or twelve years of age.... A man
having a daughter of thirteen or fourteen years of age
arranges with some elderly person for the disposal of
her, and when all are agreed, she is brought out of the
_miam-miam,_ and told that her husband wants her.
Perhaps she has never seen him, or seen him but to
loathe him. The father carries a spear and waddy, or a
tomahawk, and anticipating resistance, is thus prepared
for it. The poor girl, sobbing and sighing, and
uttering words of complaint, claims pity from those who
will show none. If she resists the mandates of her
father, he strikes her with his spear; if she rebels
and screams, the blows are repeated; and if she
attempts to run away, a stroke on the head from the
waddy or tomahawk quiets her.... Seizing the bride by
the hair the stern father drags her to the home
prepared for her by her new owner.... If she attempts
to abscond, the bridegroom does not hesitate to strike
her savagely on the head with his waddy; and the bridal
screams and yells make the night hideous.... If she is
still determined to escape and makes the attempt, the
father will at last spear her in the leg or foot, to
prevent her from running."

No more than girls are widows allowed the liberty of choice. Sometimes
they are disposed of by being exchanged for young women of another
tribe and have to marry the men chosen for them (95).

"When wives are from thirty-five to forty years of age,
they are frequently cast off by their husbands, or are
given to the younger men in exchange for their sisters
or near relatives, if such are at their disposal"
(Eyre, II., 322).

In the Murray tribes "a widow could not marry any one she chose. She
was the property of her husband's family, hence she must marry her
husband's brother or near relative; and even if he had a wife she must
become No. 2 or 3."


THE PHILOSOPHY OF ELOPEMENTS

The evidence, in short, is unanimously to the effect that the
Australian girl has absolutely no liberty of choice. Yet the
astonishing Westermarck, ignoring, _more suo_, the overwhelming number
of facts against him, endeavors in two places (217, 223) to convey the
impression to his readers that she does largely enjoy the freedom of
choice, placing his sole reliance in two assertions by Howitt and
Mathew.[173] Howitt says that among the Kurnai, women are allowed free
choice, and Mathew "asserts that, with varying details, marriage by
mutual consent will be found among other tribes, also, though it is
not completed except by means of a runaway match." Now Hewitt's
assertion is contradicted by Curr, who, in addition to his own forty
years of experience among the natives had the systematized notes of a
large number of correspondents to base his conclusions on. He says
(I., 108) that "in no instance, unless Mr. Howitt's account of the
Kurnai be correct, which I doubt, has the female any voice in the
selection of a husband." He might have added that Hewitt's remark is
contradicted in his own book, where we are told that among the Kurnai
elopement is the rule. Strange to say, it seems to have occurred
neither to Howitt, nor to Westermarck, nor to Mathew that _elopement
proves the absence of choice_, for if there were liberty of choice the
couple would not be obliged to run away. Nor is this all. The facts
prove that marriage by actual elopement[174] is of rare occurrence;
that "marriage" based on such elopement is nearly always adulterous
(with another man's wife) and of brief duration--a mere intrigue, in
fact; that the guilty couple are severely punished, if not killed
outright; and that everything that is possible is done to prevent or
frustrate elopements based on individual preference or liking. On the
first of these points Curr gives us the most comprehensive and
reliable information (I., 108):

"Within the tribe, lovers occasionally abscond to some
corner of the tribal territory, but they are soon
overtaken, the female cruelly beaten, or wounded with a
spear, the man in most cases remaining unpunished. Very
seldom are men allowed to retain as wives their
partners in these escapades. Though I have been
acquainted with many tribes, and heard matters of the
sort talked over in several of them, I never knew _but
three instances of permanent runaway matches_; two in
which men obtained as wives women already married in
the tribe, and one case in which the woman was a
stranger."

William Jackman, who was held as a captive by the natives for
seventeen months, tells a similar story. Elopements, he says (174),
are usually with wives. The couple escape to a distant tribe and
remain a few months--_rarely more than seven or eight_, so far as he
observed; then the faithless wife is returned to her husband and the
elopers are punished more or less severely. "At times," we read in
Spencer and Gillen (556, 558)

"the eloping couple are at once followed up and then,
if caught, the woman is, if not killed on the spot, at
all events treated in such a way that any further
attempt at elopement on her part is not likely to take
place."

Sometimes the husband seems glad to have got rid of his wife, for when
the elopers return to camp he first has his revenge by cutting the
legs and body of both and then he cries "You keep altogether, I throw
away, I throw away."

It is instructive to note with what ingenuity the natives seek to
prevent matches based on mutual inclination. Taplin says (11) of the
Narrinyeri that "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." Among these same Narrinyeri,
says Gason, "it is considered disgraceful for a woman to take a
husband who has given no other woman for her." (Bonwick, 245.) The
deliberate animosity against free choice is emphasized by a statement
in Brough Smyth (79), that if the owner of an eloping female suspects
that she favored the man she eloped with, "he will not hesitate to
maim or kill her." She must have no choice or preference of her own,
under any circumstances. It must be remembered, too, that even an
actual elopement by no means proves that the woman is following a
special inclination. She may be merely anxious to get away from a
cruel or superannuated husband. In such cases the woman may take the
initiative. Dawson (65) once said to a native, "You should not have
carried Mary away from her husband"; to which the man replied, "Bael
(not) dat, massa; Mary come me. Dat husband wurry bad man: he waddy
(beat) Mary. Mary no like it, so it leabe it. Dat fellow no good,
massa."

Obviously, Australian elopement not only gives no indication of
romantic feelings, but even as an incident it is apt to be prosaic or
cruel rather than romantic, as our elopements are. In many cases it is
hard to distinguish from brutal capture, as we may infer from an
incident related by Curr (108-9). He was sleeping at a station on the
Lachlan.

"During the night I was awoke by the scream of a woman,
and a general yell from the men in the camp. Not
knowing what could be the matter, I seized a weapon,
jumped out of bed, and rushed outside. There I found a
young married woman standing by her fire, trembling all
over, with a barbed spear through her thigh. As for the
men, they were rushing about, here and there, in an
excited state, with their spears in their hands. The
woman's story was soon told. She had gone to the river,
not fifty yards off, for water; the Darling black had
stolen after her, and proposed to her to elope with
him, and, on her declining to do so, had speared her
and taken to his heels."

A pathetic instance of the cruel treatment to which the natives
subject girls who venture to have inclinations of their own was
communicated by W.E. Stanbridge to Brough Smyth (80). The scene is a
little dell among undulating grassy plains. In the lower part of the
dell a limpid spring bursts forth.

"On one side of this dell, and nearest to the spring at
the foot of it, lies a young woman, about seventeen
years of age, sobbing and partly supported by her
mother, in the midst of wailing, weeping, women; she
has been twice speared in the right breast with a
jagged hand-spear by her brother, and is supposed to be
dying."


CHARMING A WOMAN BY MAGIC

Besides the three ways already mentioned of securing a
wife--elopement, which is rare; capture, which is rarer still, and
_Tuelcha mura_, in which a girl is assigned to a man before she is
born, and while her prospective mother is still a girl herself--by far
the commonest arrangement--there is a fourth, charming by magic. Of
this, too, Spencer and Gillen have given the best description
(541-44). When a man, they tell us, wants to charm a woman belonging
to a distant tribe he takes a _churinga_, or sacred stick, and goes
with some friends into the bush, where

"all night long the men keep up a low singing of
Quabara songs, together with the chanting of amorous
phrases of invitation addressed to the woman. At
daylight the man stands up alone and swings the
_churinga_, causing it first to strike the ground as he
whirls it round and round and makes it hum. His friends
remain silent, and the sound of the humming is carried
to the ears of the far-distant woman, and has the power
of compelling affection and of causing her sooner or
later to comply with the summons. Not long ago, at
Alice Springs, a man called some of his friends
together and performed the ceremony, and in a very
short time the desired woman, who was on this occasion
a widow, came in from Glen Helen, about fifty miles to
the west of Alice Springs, and the two are now man and
wife."

The woman in this case need not be a widow, however. Another man's
wife will do just as well, and if her owner comes armed to stop
proceedings, the friends of the charmer stand by him.

Another method of obtaining a wife by magic is by means of a charmed
_chilara_, or head-band of opossum fur. The man charms it in secret by
singing over it. Then he places it on his head and wears it about the
camp so that the woman can see it. Her attention is drawn to it, and
she becomes violently attached to the man, or, as the natives say,
"her internal organs shake with eagerness." Here, again, it makes no
difference whether the woman be married or not.

Still another way of charming a woman is by means of a certain shell
ornament, which a man ties to his waist-belt at a corrobboree after
having charmed it.[175]

"While he is dancing the woman whom he wishes to
attract alone sees the lightning flashes on the
_Lonka-lonka_, and all at once her internal organs
shake with emotion. If possible she will creep into his
camp that night or take the earliest opportunity to run
away with him."

Here, at last, we have come across a method which

"allows of the breaking through of the hard and fast rule
which for the most part obtains, and according to which the
woman belongs to the man to whom she has been betrothed,
probably before her birth."

Yet these cases are rare exceptions, for, as the authors inform us,
"the woman naturally runs some risk, as, if caught in the act of
eloping, she would be severely punished, if not put to death;" and
again: these cases are not of frequent occurrence, for they depend on
the woman's consent, and she knows that if caught she will in all
probability be killed, or at least very roughly handled. Hence she is
"not very easily charmed away from her original possessor." Moreover,
even these adulterous elopements seldom lead to anything more than a
temporary liaison, as we have seen, and it would be comic to speak of
a "liberty of choice" in cases where such a choice can be exercised
only at the risk of being killed on the spot.


OTHER OBSTACLES TO LOVE

Looking back over the ground traversed in this chapter, we see that
Cupid is thwarted in Australia not only by the natural stupidity,
coarseness, and sensuality of the natives, but by a number of
artificial obstacles which seem to have been devised with almost
diabolical ingenuity for the express purpose of stifling the germs of
love. The selfish, systematic, and deliberate suppression of free
choice is only one of these obstacles. There are two others almost
equally fatal to love--the habit of marrying young girls to men old
enough to be their fathers or grandfathers, and the complicated