a man accumulates a lot of
property, weapons of all kinds, trinkets, etc., which he in
turn gives away to prominent men, heads of totems, and such,
and thus adds to his own influence. This is regarded by the
Dieri as in no way anything but quite right and proper.[222]

The following passages also from Spencer and Gillen's description of
the marriage customs of these aborigines show both the nature of the
sexual system of these tribes in general and the well-developed nature
of both their sexual and their property interest in their women:

The word _Nupa_ is without any exception applied
indiscriminately by men of a particular group to women of
another group, and _vice versa_, and simply implies a member
of a group of possible wives or husbands, as the case may be.
While this is so it must be remembered that in actual practice
each individual man has one or perhaps two of these _Nupa_
women who are especially attached to himself, and live with
him in his own camp. In addition to them, however, each
man has certain _Nupa_ women beyond the limited number
just referred to, with whom he stands in the relation of
_Piraungaru_. To women who are the _Piraungaru_ of a man (the
term is a reciprocal one) the latter has access under certain
conditions, so that they may be considered as accessory wives.
The result is that in the Urabunna tribe every woman is the
especial _Nupa_ of one particular man, but at the same time
he has no exclusive right to her as she is the _Piraungaru_
of certain other men who also have the right of access to her.
Looked at from the point of view of the man his _Piraungaru_
are a limited number of the women who stand in the relation
of _Nupa_ to him. There is no such thing as one man having the
exclusive right to one woman; the elder brothers, or _Nuthie_,
of the latter, in whose hands the matter lies, will give one
man a preferential right, but at the same time they will
give other men of the same group a secondary right to her.
Individual marriage does not exist either in name or in
practice in the Urabunna tribe. The initiation in regard to
establishing the relationship of _Piraungaru_ between a man
and a woman must be taken by the elder brothers, but the
arrangement must receive the sanction of the old men of
the group before it can take effect. As a matter of act