Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/249

V fight them, by throwing boomerangs and other weapons about him. If he did not accept the challenge, they would turn on the woman, who unless she could escape into the bush, would be probably crippled, or even killed, by their weapons. The next proceeding would be that the promised husband and the offender would fight, both being fully armed with shield, spear, boomerang, and knife. The offender in such a fight would be sure to come off worst, for even if he proved to be a better man than his antagonist, the brothers of the latter, or even his own brothers, would attack him and he would be probably gashed with their knives, since his own brothers would not mind if they killed him, for under such circumstances his death would not be avenged.

When in such a fight the missile weapons were exhausted, recourse was had to knives. A dense ring of blacks generally formed round the combatants, to see fair play, and to separate the men when unfair cutting was attempted. But even here the proper husband would have an advantage, if any advantage were possible, for the blacks know before-hand which is the better man, and the lookers-on would take care that the offender did not do any serious harm to his adversary. If he did, then his relations would suffer for him, when their tribe came on a visit, for their motto is "Death for death," unless it were in some fair fight, or between comrades over some game killed. In such a case the man who killed the other would be only roughly spoken to.

But in such a fight as that above mentioned, if one of the combatants were in such a position that his antagonist could put his knife against a vital part, at the same time calling to him to give in, and he would not yield, he would probably plunge his knife into him and kill him. It is in such a case that the relatives of the man in danger, if they observed it, would close in and separate the two, taking their knives from them, and thereby end the fight.

But the woman would in any case receive a terrible