V.] THE OCEANIC NEGROES: AUSTRALIANS. 153 



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. The mother screams and scolds and 

 beats the ground with her kan-nan (fighting-stick); the dogs bark 

 and whine ; but nothing interrupts the father, who, in the per- 

 formance of his duty, is strict and mindful of the necessity of not 

 only enforcing his authority, but of showing to all that he has the 

 means to enforce it. Seizing the bride by her long hair he drags 

 her to the home prepared for her by her new owner. Further 

 resistance often subjects her to brutal treatment. 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 1 ." 



But the aborigines are at least exonerated by Mr Curr from 

 the charge of present or former promiscuity, in- 

 volved in the current theories on the complicated Marriages, 

 questions connected with the marriage-systems of 

 the Australians and other lower races. Here it is necessary to 

 distinguish carefully between ^remarriages and the so-called 

 "communal" or "group" marriages; the former having for their 

 sole object, not, as is commonly supposed, the prevention of 

 close consanguineous unions but the proper disposal of the stock 

 of available food' 2 , the latter implying on the contrary absolute 



1 Op. dt. I. p. 76. 



2 This point seems fairly well established, and for the first time, by 

 Dr W. E. Roth (op. cit. Chap, ill.) who, thanks to his thorough knowledge 

 of the local dialects, has been able to penetrate the secret, and to show that 

 unions with near relations are not necessarily barred by the class system, while 

 marriage may be prevented between persons unconnected by any ties of blood. 

 His conclusion is that the whole intricate process is based on the food supply, 

 being developed by a kind of natural selection, with a view to make the most 

 of the total quantity at the disposal of the tribe. As in New Caledonia 

 certain items are reserved for the chiefs, so in Australia husband and wife fare 

 differently from each other, and both from their children, and the classes that 

 thus arise have to be kept up by strict marriage laws, which have in principle 

 nothing to do with degrees of consanguinity. The weak point of the current 

 theory is that it implies an interest in the permanent good of the community, 



