180 Manners and Customs of the Australian Natives, 



nights and. one daj^j in order to elnde the pretended search 

 of the tribe to whom the female belonged. This conchides the 

 ceremony, and the yonng man then returns with his wife to 

 his own tribe. He is, however, laid, under this peculiar injunc- 

 tion — that he must not see his mother-in-law any more; and 

 the following circumstance, connected with this fact, has 

 been related to me by Mr. Grant, an eye-witness. A mother- 

 in-law having been descried approaching, a number of lubras 

 formed a circle around the young man, and he himself 

 covered his face with his hands. This, while it screened the 

 old lady from his sight, served as a warning to her not to 

 approach, as she must never be informed by a third party of 

 the presence of her son-in-law.^^ 



The most abominable views and the still more shameless 

 conduct of the natives, with respect to marriages, if the term 

 can be applied to their manner of living together, undoubt- 

 edly presents the worst feature of their character. 



Although the men are apt to become passionately jealous 

 if they detect their wives transgressing without their consent, 

 yet of their own accord they offer them and send them to 

 other men, or make a-n exchange for a night with some one 

 of their friends. Of relatives, brothers in particulai', it may 

 be said that they possess their wives jointly. 



While the former custom of lending their Avives out for a 

 night appears to be considered by the blacks themselves as 

 indecorous, yet the other one is an acknowledged custom, 

 which they do not see the least occasion to be ashamed of. 



These extraordinary connections have given rise to strange 

 appellations among them. The woman honors the brother 

 of the man to whom she is married with the title also of 

 husband, while the men call their own wives yungaras, and 

 those of their brothers, kartetis. 



Although they are married so very young, the women, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Schurmann's observations, generally have no 

 children before the age at which they get them in Europe. 



The number of children in a family varies considerably; 

 but, upon the whole, it is limited — seldom exceeding four. 



If, as it but seldom occurs, children are born in a family 

 quick one after another, the youngest is generally destroyed 

 in some out of the way place, by some woman, accompanied 

 for this purpose by the mother herself. From the excess of 

 male adults alive, it may fairly be presumed that a by far 

 greater number of girls than of boys are done away with in this 

 manner. As an apology for this barbarous custom, the avo- 



