Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/211

V as possible. He has then less work to do in hunting, as when they are with him they supply him with a share of the food they procure, their own Tippa-malku husbands being absent.

He also obtains great influence in the tribe by lending his Pirraurus occasionally, and receiving presents from the younger men who have no Pirraurus with them, or to whom none has yet been allotted.

Thus a man may accumulate a lot of property, weapons of all kinds, trinkets, etc., which he in his turn gives away to prominent men, such as heads of Murdus, and thus adds to his own importance.

I have mentioned marriage between Dieri and adjacent tribes, and these are, so to say, "state affairs."

Such a marriage, for instance, between a Dieri man and a woman of the Mardula tribe would be the subject of negotiation for several months. Much diplomacy is used, as one tribe desires if possible to sift out the real reasons which induce the other tribe to desire the marriage. As a preliminary, handsome presents, such as spears, boomerangs, carved shields, bags of all kinds, etc., are sent to the woman's father, to the head man of the tribe, and to the other principal men. In the event of these negotiations falling through, these presents are returned. But if both sides desire to terminate disputes and settle grievances, the proposal may be agreed to in a few weeks. The young man and the young woman have no voice in such a marriage, and, whether she likes it or not, she must submit to the will of the elders of the tribe.

In the tribe itself there is always a hot opposition to a marriage which takes a girl out of it, and the fathers in it who have unmarried and eligible sons offer every objection to the arrangement.

On such a marriage being settled, a place is fixed upon near the boundary between the two tribes, when a grand Wima (corrobboree) is held. The festivities are kept up for several days, during which time free intercourse is allowed between the sexes, without regard to existing marriage relations. No jealous feeling is allowed to be shown during