ON THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 127 
In the Wakelbura tribe the practice also exists, as described by Mr. 
Muirhead with his usual fulness of detail. He says:—‘‘ Say that there are seven 
men, all ‘ Matera-Kurgila (small bee),’ and who are some of them own and some of 
them tribal brothers, that is to say, some of them actual brothers, and the others of 
the same class, sub-class, and totem as themselves. One of these men is married, 
his wife bemg ‘Wutheran-Obukan (carpet snake),’ that is say, of that class, 
sub-class, and totem which marries with that mentioned. All these men call the 
woman ‘wife,’ and she them ‘husband, and the seven men have and exercise 
marital rights over her. Her children call the men father, and these are bound to 
protect the former.” 
This is precisely the Dierl Pirauru practice under slightly different conditions. 
It resembles also the customs of the Dieri and Kunandaburi, amongst whom, but 
sub rosa, a man’s brothers are the husbands of his wife. It is also an example of 
that practice of the Nairs and Thibetans, on the strength of which the late Mr. 
M‘Lennan founded his theory of polyandry. We can see how among primitive savage 
peoples the foundations of the customs of the Nairs and Thibetans may have 
been laid. 
The practice of group marriage, which I have now shown to be in actual existence 
over an enormous area in this continent, can be seen to have had a latent existence 
in other tribes which are now extinct, or almost so. For instance, in the Thed-dora 
tribe of the Omeo district, and the Kurnai tribe of Gippsland, on the occasion when 
the Aurora-Australis was visible, the old men ordered an exchange of wives to take 
place temporarily. It may point to some reversion to ancient custom, for the Kurnai 
believed the Aurora-Australis to be ‘‘ Mungan’s fire,’ which their tradition told them 
had once before destroyed their ancestors for disregarding his laws. However this 
may have been, the occasional reversion to group marriage in these tribes points to 
its former more general existence in them. 
What we find here is then the existence of marital rights between a number of 
men of one moiety of the tribe and a number of women of the other moiety, and vice 
versa. When the tribes people meet in more or less number the rights of the Piraurus, 
or group husbands, are exercised; when the tribe is scattered the right of the Noa 
husband predominates. This is group marriage in actual existence, and is a 
complete answer to a statement contained in the late Mr. HE. M. Curr’s work* to the 
effect that ‘‘ women in our tribes have never been found living with one man one day 
and with another the next, but that the reverse is a matter of fact of notoriety.” In 
a further passage, when he mentions a practice which is evidently the same as that I 
have now described, he says that no one ever doubts the occasional prostitution of 
* «The Australian Race,” vol. I, p. 126. 
