nt is that the _tippa-malku_ relation must precede the
_pirrauru_ relation, of which I shall speak in a moment, and cannot
succeed it[157].

There are unfortunately many points in Dr Howitt's narrative which
demand elucidation. He says, for example, that _noa_ individuals become
"_tippa-malku_ for the time being[158]." This suggests, probably
erroneously, that the _tippa-malku_ relation is merely temporary; but I
am unable to say whether it in reality means that the _tippa-malku_
relation is terminated by the capture of the woman, or that divorce is
practised and may terminate the relationship at the will of the man only
or of both parties.

Another point on which we have no information is the position of the
unmarried girls and widows. Free love is permitted, the only
limitation[159] given by Dr Howitt being that the man (who must of
course have passed through the Mindari ceremony) must not be
_tippa-malku_ to the girl, but must be _noa-mara_. It would be
interesting to know whether girls in the _tippa-malku_ relation before
actual marriage are at liberty to have sexual relations with any men of
the right status or only with unmarried men, or whether the privilege is
restricted to those who are not yet _tippa-malku_ to any one, and how
far the same restriction applies to the men.

Any man who has been duly initiated, whether he is married to a
_tippa-malku_ wife or not, and any woman who has a _tippa-malku_
husband[160], can enter or be put into a relation termed _pirrauru_ with
one or more persons of the opposite sex. The effect of the
ceremony--termed _kandri_--is to give to the _pirrauru_ spouses the
position of subsidiary husbands and wives, whose rights take precedence
of the _tippa-malku_ rights at tribal gatherings, but at other times can
only be exercised in the absence of the _tippa-malku_ spouse, or, when
the male is unmarried, with the permission of the _tippa-malku_ husband
of the _pirrauru_ spouse.

The _pirrauru_ relation is, for the woman, a modification of a
previously existing _tippa-malku_ marriage; that being so, it cannot be
quoted as evidence of a more pristine state of things in which she was
by birth the legal and actual spouse of all men of a certain tribal
status.

The _pirrauru_ relation falls under two heads of the classification I
have given above, according as the man has or has not a _tippa-malku_
wife. In the first case, it is, taken in combination with the
_tippa-malku_ marriage,