“Near Herbert Vale I had the good fortune to be able to witness a marriage among the blacks.  A camp of natives was just at the point of breaking up, when an old man suddenly approached a woman, seized her by the wrist of her left hand and shouted Yongul ngipa!—­that is, This one belongs to me (literally ’one I’).  She resisted with feet and hands, and cried, but he dragged her off, though she made resistance during the whole time and cried at the top of her voice.  For a mile away we could hear her shrieks....  But the women always make resistance, for they do not like to leave their tribe, and in many instances they have the best of reasons for kicking their lovers.  If a man thinks he is strong enough, he will take hold of any woman’s hand and utter his yongul ngipa.  If a woman is good-looking, all the men want her, and the one who is most influential, or who is the strongest, is accordingly generally the victor.”

SWAPPING GIRLS

It is obvious that when women are forcibly appropriated at home or stolen from other tribes, their inclination or choice is not consulted.  A man wants a woman and she is seized, nolens volens, whether married or single.  If she gets a man she likes, it is a mere accident, not likely to occur often.  The same is true of another form of Australian “courtship” which may be called swapping girls, and which is far the most common way of getting a wife.  Curr, after forty years’ experience with native affairs, wrote (I., 107) that “the Australian male almost invariably obtains his wife or wives, either as the survivor of a married brother, or in exchange for his sisters or daughters.”  The Rev. H.E.A.  Meyer says (10) that the marriage ceremony

“may with great propriety be considered an exchange, for no man can obtain a wife unless he can promise to give his sister or other relative in exchange....  Should the father be living he may give his daughter away, but generally she is the gift of the brother ... the girls have no choice in the matter, and frequently the parties have never seen each other before....  If a man has several girls at his disposal, he speedily obtains several wives,”

Eyre (II., 318) declares that

“the females, especially the young ones, are kept principally among the old men, who barter away their daughters, sisters, or nieces, in exchange for wives for themselves or their sons.”

Grey (II., 230) says the same thing in different words: 

“The old men manage to keep the females a good deal amongst themselves, giving their daughters to one another, and the more female children they have, the greater chance have they of getting another wife, by this sort of exchange.”

Brough Smyth thus sums up (II., 84) the information on this subject he obtained from divers sources.  A yam-stick is given to a girl when she reaches the