112 ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES OF 50 YEARS AGO 



he refused the midwife all countenance for the child. The 

 midwife then went to the mother who had gone through her 

 <;onfinement at a spot some distance away, and intimated 

 that the child was unwelcome. The little stranger 

 then disappeared as not wanted ; so generally did one of 

 twins. It is worthy of remark that the old midmfe gener- 

 ally pleaded hard for the child till the blackfellow indicated 

 by an angry reaching for a nulla- nulla that he was weary 

 of the subject, and would knock on the head perhaps her, 

 the piccaninny, or both if she worried him much longer. 

 Sometimes a black through jealousy refused to have the 

 child saved. Crippled or deformed babies might be killed. 

 It is not true, on the Darling and Murray waters, at 

 any rate, that piccaninnies were killed when food was scarce 

 or when the tribe had a journey to go. I do not presume 

 to speak for districts unknown to me in this connection. 

 The husband m^ght have one or two wives, but they must 

 be of the prescribed " group." He would lend one for any 

 time, short or long, to a visitor from another tribe, provided 

 the visitor were not of the wrong " group " — this to avoid 

 -consanguinity. There is a remarkable similarity to Maho- 

 metan customs as regards divorce. They can divorce a 

 wife, and, if all parties are agreeable, make them eligible 

 to re- marry. First cousins may not marry. The children 

 of such marriages and of marriages in prescribed " groups " 

 are treated as illegitimates are with us. A front tooth is 

 knocked out as a brand, and the outcast may marry in 

 another tribe, or, if a gin, may become the property of a 

 low white or a Chinaman. The low white or Chinaman 

 prefers such a gin, as no blackfellow is likely to come and 

 dispute possesion with him, nor is any visiting black likely 

 to coax her away for a wife, as the tribe to which she 

 belongs would favour the white man or Chinaman. 



No " illegitimate " may marry in his or her own tribe. 

 The parents marry their girl to a suitable man. She is not 

 consulted. Two men may exchange wives or tarter them. 



Grown-up sons are expected to provide for their mother, 

 ■and according to their lights they do so. The old men are 

 kept in the camp with the gins, who carry them if necessary. 



Should any infant die, the mother must carry the corpse 

 about with her for a certain time, according to the social 

 •order, before she buries it. The succeeding menstrual 



