those of his own race with whom he is unacquainted, always excepting the females.  To one of these he will become attached if he succeeds in carrying one off; otherwise he will kill the women out of mere savageness and hatred of their husbands” (80).  “Whenever they can, blacks in their wild state never neglect to massacre all male strangers who fall into their power.  Females are ravished, and often slain afterward if they cannot be conveniently carried off.”

The natives of Victoria “often break to pieces their six-feet-long sticks on the heads of the women” (Waitz, VI., 775).  “In the case of a man killing his own gin [wife], he has to deliver up one of his own sisters for his late wife’s friends to put to death” (W.E.  Roth, 141).  After a war, when peace is patched up, it sometimes happens that “the weaker party give some nets and women to make matters up” (Curr, II., 477).  In the same volume (331) we find a realistic picture of masculine selfishness at home: 

“When the mosquitoes are bad, the men construct with forked sticks driven into the ground rude bedsteads, on which they sleep, a fire being made underneath to keep off with its smoke the troublesome insects.  No bedsteads, however, fall to the share of the women, whose business it is to keep the fires burning whilst their lords sleep.”

Concerning woman in the lower Murray tribes, Bulmer says[153] that “on the journey her lord would coolly walk along with merely his war implements, weighing only a few pounds, while his wife was carrying perhaps sixty pounds.”

The lives of the women “are rated as of the less value than those of the men.”  “Their corpses are often thrown to dogs for food” (Waitz, VL, 775).  “These poor creatures,” says Wilkinson of the South Australian women (322),

“are in an abject state, and are only treated with about the same consideration as the dogs that accompany them; they are obliged to give any food that may be desired to the men, and sit and see them eat it, considering themselves amply repaid if they are rewarded by having a piece of gizzle, or any other leavings, pitched to them.”

J.S.  Wood (71) relates this characteristic story: 

“A native servant was late in keeping his appointment with his master, and, on inquiry, it was elicited that he had just quarrelled with one of his wives, and had speared her through the body.  On being rebuked by his master, he turned off the matter with a laugh, merely remarking that white men had only one wife, whereas he had two, and did not mind losing one till he could buy another.”

Sturt. who made two exploring expeditions (1829-1831), wrote (II., 55) that the men oblige their women to procure their own food, or they “throw to them over their shoulders the bones they have already picked, with a nonchalance that is extremely amusing.”  The women are also excluded from religious ceremonies;