[311] We have reasons to doubt whether these authors were as well informed about the Urabunna tribe as about the Arunta nation. Anyhow, the information they give about the Piraungaru custom is much inferior as well in respect of quantity as quality (the inconsistency of their statement is shown above) than that about the Arunta, and the conclusions they draw therefrom are not quite in accord with the facts as they relate them (see below, [p. 118]).
[312] J.A.I., xx. p. 53, Smith. Rep., p. 807, Trans. R.S.V., p. 100. In J.A.I., xx. p. 53, Howitt says that among all these tribes there are two forms of marriage. "There is a marriage ... which may be spoken of as 'individual marriage.'" "There is also a marital relation existing between a man and a number of women, or between a woman and number of men. This latter connection may be spoken of as group marriage." We see that Howitt uses here the word "marriage" only to design the individual union, and speaking about the Pirrauru, correctly employs the words "marital relations." This sounds quite differently from the repeated denial that the "individual marriage does not exist in the tribes" made by Spencer and Gillen (Nat. Tr., pp. 63, 109; Nor. Tr., p. 140). And again Howitt says (Trans. R.S.V., p. 115), "Individual marriage in Australian tribes has been evident to every one, but beside it exist also group marriages."
[313] Howitt, J.A.I., xx. p. 56. Smith. Rep., p. 807.
[315] Collective ideas which closely correspond to our ideas of monogamy, of monopolization of the marital rights and relationship in the widest sense of the word; special stress being laid on the point, that by the word "marital" relations I do not mean sexual relations, either exclusively or even in the first place.
[316] Points to which attention was drawn by Mr. N. W. Thomas, loc. cit., p. 129.
[317] Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 187. J.A.I., xx. p. 56. Spencer and Gillen, Nor. Tr., p. 73; Nat. Tr., p. 64. Howitt, Smith. Rep., p. 197.
[318] The same was argued from a different point of view by Mr. N. W. Thomas, loc. cit., pp. 127 sqq.
[319] J.A.I., xx. p. 56.
[320] Howitt, Nat. Tr., pp. 181, 187.