Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1879 — Marriage Among the Australians. [ARTICLE]

Marriage Among the Australians.

In Australia, as elsewhere, a tie of more or less permanence and acknowledged validity binds men to their partners. Marriage, again, is surrounded, as among civilized people, Ly laws of “forbidden degrees,” which are very curious, very little understood, and which in many ways resemble, while in others they seem to differ from, the laws of other undeveloped peoples. Wives are chiefly taken by exchange. The dominant male of a group—father, eldest brother or uncle —has the customary right of swapping away the young women of the group in exchange for other young women whom it is lawful for him to marry. It Is clear that old men with families have the best chance of getting mote wives, while young men with no sisters are likely to remain bachelors. If this system worked itself out, e&h tribe would consist of a few overgrown harems and a set of wild bachelors. As it happens, young men and women revolt against the bld, and voluntary elopements or marriages by capture are common. The course of true love runs anything but smooth. The lover is exposed to the, “ordeal of spears,!’ which are hurled at him by the relatives of the lady. The runaway bride is beaten, perhaps her feet are speared, to prevent her from running away again. If a young pair are courageous and true to each other, however, the sympathy of the group usually comes round to them, and, they enter on peaceful married lif<s/ It has been said that the old men sometimes give wives to tho young, who thus “take stock,” as the ancient Irish said, and become, in a way, the vassals of the old fellows. Society in Australia is not sufficiently advanced for it; but, according to some authorities a very Australian things prevails in Rural Russia.—[Saturday