122 ON THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 
own brothers would be against him, as also the woman’s brothers, and the brothers 
of her promised husband, in all cases, both own and tribal, for such a woman would 
be prohibited to him by the totem laws of marriage. In short, he would have to 
combat with all of them. They would fight in the camp, or wherever they happened 
to meet. Generaily in such cases of elopement the brothers of the woman get the 
promised husband to go with them in pursuit, but sometimes, if he is a strong 
fighting man, he will follow the eloper into his own camp. The woman, if caught, 
would probably be cut, and even killed, by her mother. The man’s own brothers 
would attack him, first challenging him to fight by smashing boomerangs or other 
weapons about him. If he did not accept the challenge they would then turn upon 
the woman, who, if she did not escape into the bush, would be crippled, or even killed, 
by their weapons. The man would, in any case, be compelled to fight with the 
woman’s promised husband, who almost certainly in such a case gets the better of him, 
for even if he were more than a match for his adversary the brothers of the latter, or 
his own brothers, would then cut him severely, and his brothers would be his worst 
antagonists, for they would not care if they killed him. When, under such 
circumstances, a man was killed, nothing was done to his brothers who killed him. 
“Tn such a fight, when all weapons at hand were exhausted, the combatants would 
draw their knives, a dense ring of blackfellows being formed round to see fair play, 
and, if necessary, to separate the men. ven here the promised husband has an 
advantage, for if he is seen to be in serious danger the onlookers will interfere to 
prevent it. But it happens sometimes that when one man can place his knife 
against a vital part of his antagonist, and then call upon him to give in and he 
refuses, the other plunges his knife into him and kills him. In these fights the 
woman receives a terrible cutting with knives, and may even be killed.” 
Finally, I may mention marriage by capture. When a woman was captured she 
became eligible as a wife for the captor only, if she were of that class or totem with 
which his class and totem could legally intermarry. Among the Kurnai, who had no 
classes or totems existing, this rule applied to the local divisions.* 
An extremely interesting and suggestive statement has been made to me in a - 
communication from Mr. C. Naseby, of Maitland, than whom no one probably has 
had better opportunity during 50 years’ acquaintance with the Kamilaroi of learning 
their customs. He says: ‘‘ Wives were not there obtained by betrothal, gift, barter, 
or exchange, of female relatives. If a white man took to wife a native woman, he 
gave as barter blankets, hatchet, shirt, trousers, &c., but a black man gave nothing. 
The Muri has a right to choose a wife from the class permitted him by the native laws. 
* “ Kamilaroi and Kurnai,” p. 227, et infra. Australian Group Relations, Smithsonian Report, 1883, p. 23, 
