t differ, except
in degree, from the licence normally enjoyed by the unmarried, and is
readily explicable on other grounds than those suggested by Spencer and
Gillen. If we are not prepared to regard this licence at puberty, which
may equally well have subsisted side by side with marriage or group
promiscuity, as a mere expression of the newly attained sexual rights,
we have as an alternative the magical theory of Mr Crawley. I do not
propose to dwell on this but will pass at once to discuss some points
which seem to have escaped the notice of Spencer and Gillen when they
proposed their hypothesis of promiscuity.

The essential point in connection with these ceremonies is the fact that
access is not limited, as in the case of the Dieri, to men who might
lawfully marry the woman. The right is restricted to men of six classes
out of the eight, including all four of the other moiety and the two of
her own half of her own moiety. Now whatever else may be deduced from
this, one thing is clear, and that is that the custom in its present
form, at any rate, took its rise before the eight classes were
introduced but after the four classes were already in existence and _a
fortiori_ after the phratries were known. Consequently no argument for
promiscuity can be founded on the right of access at initiation. It
cannot be a survival from a time when no marriage regulations were
known, for the simple reason that the custom itself bears unmistakeable
traces of regulations of a comparatively advanced type. It may of course
be argued that these limitations are of late origin. How far this is so
and why such limitations should have been introduced it is impossible to
say; but it is impossible to base an argument for primitive promiscuity
on a state of things which is admittedly not primitive unless we have
good _prima facie_ grounds for regarding the custom as a survival. There
is nothing in the present case to show that it is not a magical rite.

At other times access is permitted in accordance with class regulations,
the husband's consent being necessary, if indeed he does not actually
take the preliminary steps himself. We have seen that a similar state of
things exists in other tribes. It does not seem necessary to look for
the explanation further than the ordinary customs of savage hospitality,
the desire to do a favour to men who may be useful. It is difficult to
see why Spencer and Gillen regard the fact that women are lent in this