THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES 125 



able ; and the traveller wiU sometimes hear dreadful screeclies 

 issuiiig from their villages, which will be attributed to some 

 young Gondin being operated upon with the tattooing- 

 needle. Like all barbarians, both races deck themselves 

 with an inordinate amoimt of what they consider ornaments. 

 Quantity rather than quahty is aimed at ; and both arms 

 and legs are usually loaded with tiers of heavy rings — ^in 

 silver among the more wealthy, but, rather than not at all, 

 then in brass, iron, or coloured glass. Ear and nose rings 

 and bulky necklaces of coins or beads are also common; 

 and their ambrosial locks are intertwined on State occasions 

 with the hair of goats and other animals. 



In marriage customs they difEer from the Handus chiefly 

 in the contract and performance both taking place when the 

 parties are of full age. Polygamy is not forbidden; but, 

 women being costly chattels, it is rarely practised. The 

 father of the bride is always paid a consideration for the 

 loss of her services, as is usually the case among poor races 

 where the females bear a large share in the burden of Hfe. 

 The BibHcal usage of the bridegroom, when too poor to pay 

 this consideration in cash, serving in the house of his future 

 father-in-law for a certain time, is universal among the 

 tribes. The youth is then called a lamjan ; and it frequently 

 happens that he gets tired of waiting, and induces his fair 

 one to make a moorJight flitting of it. The morahty of 

 both sexes before marriage is open to comment ; and some 

 of the tribes adopt the precaution of shutting up all the 

 marriageable young men at night in a bothy by themselves. 

 Infidelity in the married state is, however, said to be very 

 rare; and when it does occur is one of the few occasions 

 when the stohd aborigine is roused to the extremity of 

 passion, frequently revenging himself on the guilty pair by 

 cutting ofE his wife's nose, and knocking out the brains of 

 her paramour with his axe. 



The marriage ceremony is very elaborate and childish, 

 and is generally borrowed in great part from the Hindiis. 

 The bride is in some tribes selected from among first cousins 

 by preference. More usually, however, connection is sought 

 among another tribe. Usually an understanding is come 

 to privately before the formal "asking" takes place, so 



