Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/210

184 A man may always exercise marital rights towards his Pirrauru when they meet, if her Tippa-malku husband be absent; but he cannot take her away from him, unless by his consent, excepting at certain ceremonial times, as for instance at the initiation ceremonies, or at one of the marriages arranged between a man and a woman of two different tribes.

In the absence of the Tippa-malku husband, the Pirrauru husband takes the wife of the former, and protects her during his absence.

The Tippa-malku wife takes precedence over the Pirrauru wife, if both are in the same camp, the husband sleeping next to the fire, the Tippa-malku next to him, and the Pirrauru next to her.

In a case where an elder and a younger man who are Pirrauru to the same woman are in the same camp, and the younger man has with him his Tippa-malku and also a Pirrauru wife, the elder man, if alone, would have the right to take the Pirrauru wife of the former. Should the younger man merely have his Pirrauru with him, the elder man might take her. But the two men might occupy the same hut with her, and she would share with both the food she collected.

The leading men in the tribe have usually more Tippa-malku and Pirrauru wives than other men. The Pinnaru Jalina-piramurana, elsewhere mentioned, who was the head of the Dieri tribe when I knew it in 1861-62, had over a dozen Pirraurus allotted to him, and, in addition, several women were assigned to him in each of the neighbouring tribes as a mark of respect, as, so to say, honorary Pirraurus.

Men were considered to be highly honoured if any of his Pirraurus were allotted to them.

In the event of a Tippa-malku wife dying, a Pirrauru-wife will take charge of her children and attend to them with affection, and not in any manner as a step-mother. It must be remembered that a man's wives, whether Tippa-malku or Pirrauru, are in the relation of sisters, either own or tribal.

It is an advantage to a man to have as many Pirraurus