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40. Agriculture. There are no signs of this. The training and domestication of the dingo however takes place: the pups are caught young, brought into the camp, and tied up by the leg until such time as they become reconciled to their surroundings. One boy or one gin is placed in charge of these animals: in the latter case, she will often suckle them.
41. Social Organisation. The tribe is divided into two chief divisions, the doo-âr and the tâ-boo : these are exogamous, and the children follow the father. So far as tribal name is concerned however, if the parents happen to belong to different tribes, the children follow the mother. [Note in margin] (There is a great deal more to be learnt [here] however Hislop promises [to] try and obtain written details W.E.R)
42. Marital Relations. Children are betrothed at birth. If already married, the husband will take charge of his betrothed wife when she is about 4 or 5 years old: this is especially the case if he moves about a good deal, or leav lives some distance away from her tribe. If not already married, he has to wait until such time as she reaches puberty : he may however, if she is almost 11 or 12 years of age, and he is about to take his departure for some other district, take her by the wrist (the sign of marriage) before in the presence of ^ all the other blacks, tell her she is his, and warn her parents to look after her well, and that if anyone attempts to interfere with her, they are to inform him at once. There is no actual ceremony of marriage : sometimes, if the girl is too shy to go to her future husband's hut, her brother or father will accompany her - if still recalcitrant, the husband will pull her in by the wrist. A man is always supposed to make presents to his future mother-in-law. The [fa] wife is not allowed to converse with her husband's-brother's "pewul" (sect.22)
Polygamy is practised, the wives living in the hut together: the betrothed wife is however always more thought of than the one who has been obtained by capture, or by legacy from his deceased brother (sect.43). There are certain prohibited degrees of marriage: a man cannot marry