8 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, 



concerning this particular individual being a bachelor, etc., and 

 convene all the other males available of first-initiation rank and 

 upwards to a Camp-council where the qualifications of the 

 marriageable men are put under consideration ; during the 

 deliberations, in which no women are allowed to take part, the 

 person subjudice can be present to listen only, but more usually 

 he will leave camp to go on some fishing or hunting expedition. 

 If all is found to be proper and satisfactory, and the vote of 

 the Camp-council must be unanimous, the woman's brothers, or 

 mother's brothers, present the bridegroom elect some time during 

 the day with a smouldering fire-stick. This stick has nothing 

 whatever distinctive about it ; any small piece of wood, about 

 five or six inches long, of any material or shape, is sulficient. 

 The same intermediaries some time after sundown give a similar 

 stick to the bride and direct her to her future husband's hut, 

 whither it is obligatory on her part to go and remain. This 

 ceremony is binding on both sides, and except by mutual agree- 

 ment, the couple can only be parted by death. 



16. The widow becomes the property of one of her late 

 husband's brothers, the consummation of her re-marriage usually 

 only taking place at Cape Bedford, the Bloomfield River, Cape 

 Grafton, etc., when the mourner's hair which has been allowed 

 to grow during the burial ceremonies is finally cut; on the Lower 

 Tully, however, she can on occasion be re-married on the day 

 following her late husband's decease, independently of all the 

 complicated burial customs taking place there. At Cape Bedford 

 the deceased's next younger blood- or group-brother, the former 

 having the prior claim, has the first choice of the widow, who is 

 not apparently forced to re-marry, though she generally thinks 

 better of it and does. She is hammered on the head the day 

 after her husband's decease, with a wommera, by all the old men 

 round about, who excuse their conduct b} 7 saying that from the 

 very first she was jealous of some other girl and forbade her late 

 husband to have her, and further that she used to eat his food, 

 which otherwise they might have had and enjoyed. 10 On the 

 Bloomfield River the widow's own group- or blood-brother has 

 the greatest say as to which one of her late spouse's brothers she 

 has to be given to. There are often great disputes over arranging 



'' As to the suitable exogamous groups, both of them of at least first- 

 initiation rank. 



1(1 Roth — Bull. 2 — Sect. 31r>, where it will be noted that the hammering 

 does not take place if the deceased was an old man. [It is not worth while 

 avenging an old man whose infirm "spirit" could do the survivors no 

 harm.— W.E.R.] 



