Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/292

266 if the offender were present, some one would probably drive a spear into him. His relatives would not interfere, lest they might have the same done to them.

Many of the old men among the Yuin, especially the principal Gommeras, had more than one wife, and there was one man who had ten, but not at the same time. He was in the habit of giving a wife to some poor fellow who had not any, and thus securing his adherence, and at the same time reducing the number he had to hunt for.

Men did not lend their wives to their brothers, but when a man's Kuben, that is, wife's brother, came on a visit, being unmarried, or had not brought his wife with him, his Kuben found him a temporary wife by borrowing one from a friend. I remember a somewhat analogous case in the Kurnai tribe. Bunbra, whom I have mentioned elsewhere, had two wives, and when a friend of his was about to make a long journey in the mountains by himself, Bunbra lent him the least useful of his wives, saying, "Poor fellow, he is a widower, and has a long way to go, and will feel very lonely."

A widow went to her husband's brother if he had one. If not, her male kindred gave her to some man chosen by them.

The universal rule which forbade a man to hold any communication with his wife's mother was very strict in these tribes. He might not look at her, nor even in her direction. If his shadow happened to fall on her, he would have to leave his wife, who would return to her parents. A case happened at Jervis Bay which I heard of, where a man in a drunken state accidentally ran up against his mother-in-law, and the Gommera made him leave his wife. This law is one of those told to the novices at the initiation ceremonies, and strongly impressed on them.

On the Hunter there were tribes which have been made known to me under the names Geawe-gal, Gringai, etc., whose boundaries are given in Chapter II. Most of the Gringai were named Kumbo, but there were some Ipai, Kubbi, and Murri among them. It has not been possible for me to obtain sufficient information to tabulate their class system under the sub-class rules, but there are certain