224 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



maturity she will have been allotted to one of the men 

 who are unawa to her. Before she is handed over to 

 him she has to undergo a cruel and revolting rite 

 which is performed with the cognisance but not, among 

 the Arunta, in the presence of the bridegroom (if we 

 may dignify him by that name). The rite is imme- 

 diately followed by sexual intercourse with the men 

 who take part in it, beginning with men with whom 

 intercourse is at ordinary times forbidden and con- 

 cluding with those who, like the bridegroom, are 

 unawa to her. She is then adorned with head-bands and 

 tufts of fur, with necklaces and arm-bands of fur-string, 

 and her body is painted all over with a mixture of fat 

 and red ochre. Thus decorated she is handed over to 

 her husband, who will most likely send her back the 

 next day to the same men for a repetition of the inter- 

 course, though it is not, among the Arunta, obligatory 

 on him to do so. From that time she becomes 

 exclusively appropriated to him, subject to certain 

 tribal customs. 1 The first of these customs is the 

 right to lend her when he pleases to men who stand 

 in the relation of unawa to her. Such loans are usually 

 made to guests who are visiting the tribe. They are 

 dependent on the husband's will, and are a mark ot 

 personal favour by him to the visitor or other friend in 

 question. But tribal custom, independent of the 

 husband's will, limits his exclusive ownership of the 

 woman much more seriously. On the occasion of an 

 important corrobboree it is every man's duty at different 

 times to send his wife to the ground, that the men 



1 S. and G., Cent. Tribes, 92 sqq. 107 ; North. Tribes, 133 sqq. 

 There seems some doubt whether after all the Arunta are properly 

 speaking in the stage of fatherright. 



