Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/285

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V
MARRIAGE RULES
259

also attached to the daughter of the mother's brother and of the father's sister. But while in this they forbade the marriage allowed by the Urabunna, they followed the rule of the Dieri in allowing those in the next succeeding level, that is, those who in the Dieri tribe are Noa, to marry.

It must be remembered that in this tribe there are four classes, or perhaps four primary totems, under which the other totems are arranged. Using the term class for the former, then there was no restriction in their marriages. The following table gives the marriages and descents of the oldest men of the tribe who were living when I obtained this information:—

Name. Class. Married. Children were
King Tom (60 years old) Kari Wiltu Kari
His father Kari Kari Kari
His father's father Kari Wiltu Kari
Corporal Joe (6o years old) Wilthutha Wiltu Wilthutha
His father Wilthutha Kari Wilthutha
Harry Richards (45 years old) Kari Kari Kari
His father Kari Kari Kari
His father's father Kari Kari Kari
Old man (70 years old) Wortu Wortu Wortu

As these notes were made in the year 1887, and the figures bracketed after the names give their probable ages, King Tom must have been born somewhere about the year 1827. Wortu, the oldest man in the tribe, supposed to be about seventy, would have been born about 1817. Thus they belonged to the generation whose early days saw their country settled by the white men, and they grew up under the old laws under which their fathers and grandfathers grew up, and probably died before the white men came and disturbed their customs.

When a man obtained a wife by eloping with a woman who would have been otherwise refused to him because of nearness of kinship, he would be permitted to retain her if the relationship were a distant one, and if they remained away till a child was born. But if the relationship were too near, then she would be taken from him.