Hardman — Habits and Customs of Natives of Kimberley. 
71 
The women rarely exceed 5 feet in height, seldom, indeed, reach- 
ing that altitude. The young girls, although not by any means to be 
called handsome, or even pretty, have often a pleasing and lively 
expression of countenance ; but the older women are not only ugly, 
but sometimes positively repulsive-looking. Indeed I recollect one of 
our surveyors actually lost his appetite, for a day, after casually 
meeting one of these old dames. 
The photographs I exhibit will convey a fair idea as to the average 
appearance of this race. 
Polygamy is an institution, and the number of wives is chiefly 
restricted by the man's taste for matrimony, his means of supporting a 
large family, and his interest with those of his friends who have female 
children to give away. 
As a rule, the females are monopolized by the older and more in- 
fluential men of the tribe. It is in fact rare to find a married man, or, 
as they term it in pigeon English, oolman" under 30 or 40 years of 
age. 
The young men are eligible for marriage after twelve months from 
the time when they have been welgied" — that is, painted with red 
ochre — which is done when they are about eighteen years old, and they 
are then known as Bielhuhr. Eut Bielhuhr, corresponding to our 
hachelor^ but with perhaps more moral restrictions, they remain, until 
they obtain a wife from the tribe, or manage to steal one from another 
community. After marriage, the man is called Balulrr. 
Yery often the new-born female children are sealed" to some in- 
fluential man, usually an old man, of the tribe ; and during the inter- 
vening time, until marriage, usually ten years, the man cannot even 
look upon his bethrothed ; nor is he allowed to hold any intercourse 
with, or even to see, his future mother-in-law, this last rule being con- 
tinued for some time after the marriage. 
Indeed it is said that in some tribes the rule is strictly enforced 
even after marriage^ If the man sees his mother-in-law he is bound 
to avoid her, and vice versa. "Whether this rule was instituted for the 
better preservation of the peace in families, I know not. 
Maeriage Laws. 
These are very peculiar, but are only modifications of those 
existing amongst all Australian tribes. It has been thought that 
they have been devised to prevent, to some degree, consanguineous 
marriages; but the true reason, as will be seen in the sequel, 
