Marriage by elopement occurred, but the woman was looked on with disfavour, because there had been no exchange of a sister for her. In the cases of elopement the young man might call in the aid of his comrades, who then had the right of access to the girl, and his male relatives would only defend him from the girl's kindred on the condition of access to her. In regard to this, I may point out here that the initiated youth, during the time he was narumbe, had complete licence as to the younger women, and could even approach those of his own class and totem. This shows a survival of older customs, and at the same time marks the distinction between the mere inter-sexual intercourse and the proprietary right of marriage.
I was told that the Narrinyeri clans did not take captive the women of other clans with which they were at war, it not being according to their ideas of what was fair; but if they met with a few women of the hostile clan, they treated them as common to themselves for a time, and then let them go. This statement seemed to me to be doubtful, and I requested my correspondent, the late Mr. F. W. Taplin, to make further inquiry, which he did, with the result that the old men and old women maintained that it was so.
A great stretch of country intervenes along the coast of Southern Australia between the Narrinyeri and the next tribes which come within this section. These are the Murring tribes on the south coast of New South Wales.
These tribes had only traces of a class organisation. Totem names were inherited by children from their fathers, and they still regulated marriage, in so far that a person could not marry one of the same totem name as himself. Yet the Murring distinctly said that these names were not like the personal names which each individual had, but were more like a Joia, that is, like something appertaining to magic. In addition to the above-mentioned restriction, the prohibition of marriage between persons of the same locality exists here as in the tribes of Western Victoria, the Kurnai of Gippsland, and other tribes which I have mentioned. Particulars of these local regulations are given later on as to the latter, to which the reader is referred.
