way only to their _unawa_ as a proof of the former existence of group
marriage. Clearly if intercourse is permitted only between certain
persons before marriage and only certain persons are allowed to marry,
we can hardly be surprised to find that these latter are restricted in
the choice of men to whom they may lend their wives after marriage. The
surprising thing would be if it were otherwise.

In addition, as in the tribes we have already considered, irregular
access is practised for magical purposes in connection with the
performance of ceremonies and the sending out of messengers. It has
already been pointed out that we have no grounds for regarding such
practices as survivals; for if we put on sackcloth and ashes as a
penance for our misdeeds, it does not follow that this was ever the
prevailing costume. It is even less possible to interpret the ritual
lending of wives to messengers as a survival, for, _ex hypothesi_, the
messengers were not of the group which "group-married," and messengers
of any sort point to a stage when inter-tribal relations had made
considerable advance and the tribes in question are hardly likely to
have been still in the stage of the "undivided commune."

The survey of Australian customs and terms of relationship leads us to
the conclusion that the former, so far from proving the present or even
former existence of group marriage in that continent, do not even render
it probable; on the latter no argument of any sort can be founded which
assumes them to refer to consanguinity, kinship or affinity. It is
therefore not rash to say that the case for group marriage, so far as
Australia is concerned, falls to the ground. Even were it otherwise,
even were group marriage proved for Australia or for any other part of
the world, we should still be far from having established promiscuity
and group marriage as a stage in the general history of mankind. For
that at least a scheme of development is needed. Even were the arguments
in favour of the group marriage hypothesis much stronger, its supporters
might reasonably be asked to give us something more than assertion and
reassertion without any attempt to show in detail the process of
evolution. To take an example from another sphere, it may safely be said
that the general theory of evolution would find few supporters if it
were not possible to trace some existing species and genera back to some
generalised type in the past. At present the position