unperceived to the river where the girls were bathing and at last
showed himself carelessly sitting on a high tree. The girls were
startled, but thought it would be safe to amuse themselves by
looking at the intruder. "Young and with the most active figure,
yet of a strength that defied the strongest emu, and even enabled
him to resist an 'old man' kangaroo, he had no equal in the
chase, and conscious power gave a dignity to his expression that
at one glance calmed the fears of the two girls. His large
brilliant eyes, shaded by a deep fringe of soft black eyelashes,
gazed down upon them admiringly, and his rich black hair hung
around his well-formed face, smooth and shining from the emu-oil
with which it was abundantly covered." At last he persuaded them
to talk and by and by induced them to call him husband. Then they
went off with him, with no thought of flight in their hearts.
("Australian Folklore Stories," collected by W. Dunlop, _Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, new series, vol. i, 1898, p.
33.)

Of the people of Torres Straits Haddon states (_Reports
Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, vol. v, p. 222):
"It was during the secular dance, or _Kap_, that the girls
usually lost their hearts to the young men. A young man who was a
good dancer would find favor in the sight of the girls. This can
be readily understood by anyone who has seen the active, skilful,
and fatiguing dances of these people. A young man who could
acquit himself well in these dances must be possessed of no mean
strength and agility, qualities which everywhere appeal to the
opposite sex. Further, he was decorated, according to local
custom, with all that would render him more imposing in the eyes
of the spectators. As the former chief of Mabuiag put it, 'In
England if a man has plenty of money, women want to marry him; so
here, if a man dances well they too want him.' In olden days the
war-dance, which was performed after a successful foray, would be
the most powerful excitement to a marriageable girl, especially
if a young man had distinguished himself sufficiently to bring
home the head of someone he had killed."

Among the tribes inhabiting the mouth of the Wanigela River, New
Guinea, "when a boy admires a girl, he will not look at her,
speak to her, or go near her. He, howev