116 ON THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 
It seems to me that the most common practice is the exchange of girls by their 
respective parents as wives for each other’s sons, or in some tribes the exchange of 
sisters, or of some female relatives by the young men themselves. It must 
be always borne in mind that in such cases it is not merely the own sisters, but also 
the tribal sister, who is thus available. For in all cases the relationship 
term, whatever it may be, covers a group rather than the mere individual, 
who only becomes perceptible to the inquirer upon special quest. The reader may 
be referred to the explanation given hereupon in the section treating of relationships. 
Thus, it seems in a case where I found the right of betrothal of an infant 
daughter to be in the mother’s brother, that in default of the own brother to the 
girl’s mother, the son of the girl’s mother’s sister had the right to dispose of her. 
This practice is quite logical when examined by the light of the explanation given at 
p. 181, for the children of sisters are in the fraternal relation to each other, and 
as, in the tribe in question, descent was in the female line, they were in the same 
class. Before quoting some instances in illustration of this practice, I may remind 
the reader that no man was permitted to take to himself a wife until he had 
been duly admitted to the status of manhood by passing through the Bora 
ceremonies of his tribe, and the permission to take a wife depended upon the consent 
of those old men who controlled the ceremonies. 
The practice of exchange as a means of procuring a wife is so common that it 
is not necessary to do more than to note its general prevalence, and also some 
variations in the custom which have come under my notice, or which have been 
recorded by competent correspondents. 
In the Woeworung tribe, according to Berak, marriage was arranged by the 
fathers respectively, often when the girl was quite small. But before the matter was 
arranged between them the girl’s father had to consult with his wife. The girl being 
promised, the fathers of the girl and her promised husband announced the 
arrangement to the other people, and at a future time, when the girl became 
marriageable, a council of the old men having decided that the marriage should take 
place, all the people then went to the bridegroom, taking the girl with them. One 
of her kindred—for instance her father, her brother, or in default of them her 
mother’s brother—led the girl forward, and some one of the old men addressing the 
bridegroom, said to this effect: ‘‘ This is your wife, the people give her to you, do 
not beat or ill-treat her ;”’ and to her: ‘‘ Do not run away from him or you will be 
killed.” 
In the Wotjobaluk tribe a wife was obtained by exchanging a sister, own or 
tribal, and such exchanges were often arranged when the girl was not more than a 
year or two old. ‘The father had no right to arrange this exchange, swo proprio 
motu, but he did it sometimes when he had a great desire to give his daughter to 
