undivided commune,
though if it is so it is hard to see why they should have rights only
over the younger women. The practice does not appear to differ from the
free love found among the Dieri except in the absence of class
restrictions and its limitation to the period after initiation which is
among many other peoples a period of sexual licence.

Another group of customs, also interpreted by Dr Howitt as a survival of
group marriage and an "expiation for individual marriage," calls for
some discussion. It is unnecessary to refer here to the explanation of
the _jus primae noctis_ suggested by Mr Crawley. It may be that the
matter can also to some extent be explained as payment for services, in
the same way as the _pirrauru_ relation shows some signs of being a
_quid pro quo_.

In certain tribes access to the bride is permitted to men of the group
of the husband. Among the Kuinmurbura they are the men who have aided
the husband to carry off the woman[189]; and the same is the case with
the Kurnandaburi and Kamilaroi tribes[190]. It is very significant that
among the Narrinyeri the right of access only accrues in case of
elopement and precisely to those men who actually give assistance in the
abduction, a fact hard to explain on the theory of expiation[191]. Among
the Mukjarawaint the right seems to belong to those of the same totem,
but apparently the young men only[192]; but here too their position as
accessories is quite clear, as indeed it must be in any tribe where the
right accrues to men of the same totem. By all the rules of savage
justice a punishment may be inflicted in these cases either on the
offender himself or on the men of his totem. It is therefore not strange
that they require from the abductor some return for the danger to which
he exposes them, especially if they actually take part in the abduction.
An aberrant form of the custom is found among the Kurnai, among whom the
_jus primae noctis_ falls to men initiated at the same _jeraeil_ as the
bridegroom.

Among the Kurnandaburi there was a period of unrestricted licence after
the exercise of the _jus primae noctis_, even the father of the bride
being allowed access to her. This did not of course violate totem or
phratry regulations. Dr Howitt does not comment on the case, but it
would have been interesting to hear whether both these customs are to be
regarded as survivals and if so what caused the duplication[193].

In estimating the value of the c