ON THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. Tt 
would call him to combat. In every case of this kind which has come under my 
notice, the man forsook his tribe and jomed hers. He would be free from any 
interference from them, and his own people would not feel any anger against him. 
From this time forward he would be called by the name of the tribe he had joined, 
and would take part in their ceremonies, and fight on their side even against his 
former tribe.” 
These instances will, I think, suffice to show the universality of this custom. 
In connection with this subject may now be considered those cases of elopement 
in which the woman was married, or where the parties were within the prohibited 
degrees of kindred or of class. 
The elopement of a betrothed woman is not only an offence against her 
promised husband, and necessarily, in some tribes, against those who join 
with him in marital rights over her, but itis a direct loss to that group which 
is fraternal to her, and which is thereby deprived of a valuable equivalent for 
a wife for one of themselves. One cannot, therefore, feel any surprise that 
such cases are usually dealt with by the groups affected in a severe manner. 
But it is an offence of a far graver nature when elopement takes place between 
persons who are of the same class or totem name, or in some tribes, e.g., the 
Kurnai, of the same locality, or who stand towards each other in certain 
degrees of kinship.* In these cases, and in almost all tribes, the offence is punished 
with death. Among the Kurnai, if the parties were too nearly related to each other 
they were pursued and killed by the conjoined kindred of each, unless they could 
make their escape out of the country: There seems to be reason to believe that the 
Bidwelli tribe, east of the Snowy River, was recruited by ‘“‘ broken men” of this 
kind. The Woeworung also killed those who, being too nearly related, eloped. 
It was the same with the Dieri. The offenders were tried in a secret session of 
the old men in council under their Headman, and, if found guilty, were killed. Mr. 
Gason tells me that he has been present at such times. ‘This punishment of such 
offences against the moral code of these aborigines is so universal in Australia that I 
need not give further instances beyond an example taken from the Wakelbura tribe, 
which Mr. Muirhead states as follows:— _ 
“Tn cases of unlawful connection or elopements between persons of forbidden 
class or totem, or who are too nearly related to each other, such, for instance, as 
children of a brother and of a sister respectively, the law is very strict. or instance, 
if a Kurgila-Tunara (opossum) ran off with an Obuan-Wallaruan (hill kangaroo), who 
would in due course have become the wife of a Kurgila-Burkum (plain turkey), his 
* Australian Group Relations. Smithsonian Report for 1883, p. 22. 
