Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/271

V The Wotjobaluk marriage ceremony was simply that the bridegroom's father, father's brothers, brothers, and male paternal cousins all went together to the bridegroom's camp. With them went the bride's father holding her by the arm. At about ten paces from the camp they sat down, and her father's sister said to her after this manner, "That is your Manitch (husband), he will give you food, you must stop with him." They then went away leaving the girl there. On the following day the girl's friends gave a dancing corrobboree, at which the bride's relatives were present as spectators.

No one had access to the bride in this tribe, as was the case in some others; and only in the case of misconduct of a wife did she become common to others.

In the Mukjarawaint tribe the marriage ceremony differed in detail from that of the Wotjobaluk. The bride's paternal grandfather, father, or brother who had given her away, or had the disposal of her, took her in the evening to her husband's camp and left her there, where she was supposed to lie on the ground outside all night. On the following evening there was a corrobboree, as in other branches of the Wotjo nation, and the bridegroom danced at this, and exhibited his skill in other performances, while the bride's friends looked on.

Among the Wotjobaluk it was not usual for men to have more than one wife, and they were very strict in requiring fidelity from her, and did not lend a wife to a friend or to a visitor from a distance. If a married woman misconducted herself, she was most commonly killed, together with the "co-respondent," if he could be found.

It was not uncommon that a girl who had, as an infant, been promised in marriage, liked some other man better, and in consequence eloped with him. In all the branches of the Wotjo nation the procedure was much the same, and the following instance of what occurred in the Mukjarawaint tribe will serve for all. A White-cockatoo man eloped with a Black-cockatoo girl, who was promised to another man. Before starting, he gave notice of his intention to the young men of his totem who were at the