this time under penalty of strangling,[1] but it crops up afterwards and occasions bloody affrays.
If the girl does not take kindly to her husband, she very probably tries to escape home, but is on all such occasions pursued; and, if captured, is brought back to be jeered at by the other women. In some cases she is also cruelly punished.
If, however, the girl likes her husband, and makes herself popular, she is treated well, and it is in her power to acquire influence with the other women. Should any important matter arise between her husband's tribe and that of her parents, she becomes most useful in negotiating with the latter, with which she has naturally more influence than a stranger.[2]
The prohibited degrees of relationship among the Dieri include parents and children, brothers and sisters, and those who are called Kami. These relations are called Buyulu, and one of the greatest insults which can be given to a Dieri is to call him or her by this name with Parchana added, implying that there are improper relations between the person spoken to and his or her nearest relations. This expression is never used by one person to another unless they have been worked up to a state of anger approaching frenzy. So repugnant is this subject to the Dieri that they will become indignant if it is introduced and they are asked about it. The elders of the tribe, old men and old women, in their leisure hours lecture the young people on the laws of the tribe, impress on them modesty and propriety of conduct, and point out the heinousness of incest. Mr. Gason told me that he had often listened to the old women thus instructing the younger ones with deep interest.
The opinion of the Rev. Otto Siebert expressed to me as to the Pirrauru marriage, formed after many years' intimate acquaintance with the Dieri, is worth quoting. He said, "The practice of Pirrauru is worthy of praise for its strength and earnestness in regard to morality, and in the ceremonial with which it is regulated, since no practice could be less in accord with the hetairism which Lord Avebury has imagined for the Australian aborigines."
