ustom of _jus primae noctis_ as evidence
of a prior state of group marriage, a custom of the Yuin should not be
overlooked. If a man elopes with another man's betrothed he is punished
by having to fight the girl's father, brothers, and mother's brother;
the girl was sometimes punished by being beaten; all the men who pursued
her had a right of access provided they were of the right totem and
locality. If however the eloping couple were not caught they were not
liable to punishment after a child was born. There is no mention of any
_jus primae noctis_ where the marriage was the result of betrothal. In
this case therefore the right of access is a punishment, so far as the
girl is concerned; it is earned by taking part in the pursuit, a fact
which confirms the suggested explanation of the right of access at
marriage.

It should not be overlooked that this form of punishment is found among
some tribes as the penalty for adultery[194], when it certainly cannot
be interpreted as an expiation for individual marriage. This was the
case among the Wotjoballuk, the Kamilaroi, and the Euahlayi.

We may now turn to the customs of the central and northern tribes
visited by Messrs Spencer and Gillen. Except in the case of three of the
north-eastern tribes the right of access accrues in connection with the
_ariltha_ ceremony. It may be said at once that there is among these
tribes no trace of access as payment for services; for on the rare
occasions when a wife is captured she is allotted to an individual and
becomes his property at once, according to a statement in the first work
of Spencer and Gillen[195]. In the same work, it is true, this statement
is contradicted by the assertion that on such occasions only the men of
the right class are allowed to have access[196]. But this statement does
not seem to be based on any facts within the knowledge of the writers,
for they make a definite statement to the contrary with regard to the
Arunta customs, and it was with the Arunta that they were specially
concerned, and in the later volume no further details are given, as they
should have been, if the custom was found among any of the tribes
visited on the second expedition.

The association of the right of access with the initiation ceremony is
paralleled, as we have already seen, among other tribes. It hardly seems
necessary to argue a state of primitive promiscuity from a custom of
licence at the period of puberty, which does not in fac