[314] See above, p. 41. Undoubtedly it has its legal aspect, for it rests on the authority of the camp council of old men, which seems to be the only form of tribal authority known in these tribes. The old men seem also to keep an eye on the _Pirrauru_ connections in their subsequent course (see below under 5). These relations, therefore, bear, thanks to this sanction of the tribal elders, the character of validity and legality, and are to a certain degree compulsory. (How far they are compulsory in the case of the husband of the allotted woman, see below under 6); but they involve neither the mutual obligation of two families, nor a period of long engagement, nor any factors expressing collective ideas of the individuality of mutual appropriation of a man and a woman.[315] [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. There are still two points connected with this heading which emphasize the difference between the individual marriage and the _Pirrauru_ relation,[316] namely that individual marriage must precede _Pirrauru_ relations; in other words, that only married women may be made _Pirraurus_. Secondly, that although any woman may have only one Tippa Malku husband (men may have several Tippa Malku wives), she may have several _Pirraurus_. This very point induced many writers to consider the _Pirrauru_ as a form of group marriage.[317] That this relation bears a group-character is beyond doubt. That it must be clearly distinguished from marriage is just what we try to show here.[318] [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._