The idea that ‘group marriage’ exists among the dusky natives of Australia, and that ‘the group is the social unit as regards marriage’ (as explained in the earlier part of this book), was introduced by Messrs. Howitt and Fison in their _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_ (1880). Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, in their _Natives of Central Australia_ (1899), support the views of Messrs. Fison and Howitt. ‘Under certain modifications group marriage still exists as an actual custom, regulated by fixed and well recognised rules, amongst various Australian tribes’ (p. 56). ‘Individual marriage does not exist either in name or practice in the Urabunna tribe’ (p. 63). Mr. Crawley argues, on the other hand, that individual marriage does exist among the Urabunna, ‘though slightly modified’ (_Mystic Rose_, p. 482). For each ‘slight modification,’ the husband’s consent must be obtained. The system is regarded by Mr. Crawley, not as a survival of promiscuity, more or less modified, but as an ‘abnormal development.’ He believes in individual marriage, as, from the earliest known times, ‘the regular type of union of man and woman.’ ‘One is struck by the high morality of primitive man’ (pp. 483-484). What Mr. Atkinson meant by saying that ‘marriage is communal,’ I do not understand, as, on his theory, sexual jealousy must have prevented each man of a generation, in a group, from being equally the husband of each woman, not his sister. The young braves are supposed to bring in women captives from without, and to marry them ‘communally,’ Then what becomes of jealousy? They ought rather to have fought for their captive, on the principles of a golf tournament, the survivor and winner taking the bride. Mr. Atkinson never saw his work except in his manuscript, and might have made modifications on such points as this, where he seems to me to lose grasp of his idea, as in his theory of recognition of the children of ‘the outside suitor,’ he seems to bring male descent into action at a period when, as he asserts elsewhere, it was not yet recognised by customary law. On the Keddies (p. 287) I have no information, the author giving no reference. A. L. [Footnote 1: _Ancient Society_, p. 384, Lewis H. Morgan.] [Footnote 2: _Ibid._ p. 402.] [Footnote 3: _Ibid._ p. 409.] [Footnote 4: _Ibid._ p. 385.] [Footnote 5: _Ancient Society_, p. 391, Lewis H. Morgan.] [Footnote 6: _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, Lorimer and Fison. Cf. note at end of chapter. I have already stated my objections to the theory of ‘group marriage.’--A. L.]