WIFE STEALING 285 



who fears a spear hurled at his front, so quick of eye are 

 they all that they can avoid a thrown missile with perfect 

 ease. This part of the trial was certainly a farce. The 

 second part may also have been so, though it had a more 

 formidable appearance. It consisted of a personal duel 

 with waddies or clubs between the nearest relative of the 

 girl and her abductor. The latter had to bear the first 

 blow, and, strange to say, it never seemed to fell him, far 

 less to have fatal results. Having borne the thwack, he 

 straightened himself up and prepared in turn to administer 

 a blow on the hair-matted cobbera or head of his opponent, 

 who was compelled to stoop to receive the crushing blow. 

 And so the game went on, knock after knock being 

 alternately administered until one of the combatants was 

 floored. The victor was greeted with acclamations, both 

 parties yelled their exultation at the lively entertainment, 

 and the day's sport terminated with a grand combined 

 corroboree, at which the full strength of each tribe 

 (including the dusky beauties) were present. 



How matters terminated if the wife-stealer were killed 

 or defeated I know not, for I could never learn of a case 

 in which he was defeated, a sufficient proof, it seems to me, 

 that the whole proceeding was, like many of the solemn 

 ceremonies of civilised procedure, a formal farce. I have 

 written the account of this quaint trial in the past tense, 

 for wife-stealing and many other old native habits and 

 customs seem to have died out, or nearly so, within the 

 past few years. This may be chiefly owing to the fact 

 that the native blacks are thinning out rapidly, and many 

 of the tribes have no longer neighbours to rob of their 

 daughters. 



The woman is the absolute property of the man. 

 According to native law, or rather custom, he may beat, 

 ill-use, or kill her at his pleasure. She is always his hard- 

 worked slave, and must submit herself to any man her 

 husband chooses to lend or sell her to. Her father may give 

 her, as maid or widow, to whom he pleases. If the father 

 is dead, her brother, and after him the nearest male relative 

 becomes her owner, with plenary powers to sell, beat, or 



