Children are treated with extreme leniency among the Central Australian tribes. "If the children are unruly the mothers try to quiet them with fair words, or may scold them a little, or even slap them gently, but never take any extreme means." Mothers often quarrel and even fight with each other defending their own offspring. "When a child sickens, the mother takes it in her lap, and does not leave the spot, the father sitting by."[708] All this shows a deep parental affection towards the children. And that it is limited to individual parents is confirmed by the following phrase: "Orphans fare the worst, and usually the nearest relative looks after them, but does not assume a parent's position. Such children receive blows and have to provide for themselves as best they can."[709] Although I avoid the problem of relationship terms, as lying outside the narrow limits of the present study, that deals exclusively with facts of family life, I quote the following statement of the same author as especially instructive. "_Kata_ signifies father of the class; _Kata iltja_ sexual father." The affix _iltja_ indicates the individual relationship and the affix _lirra_ class reference. "Ordinarily they leave out the words _iltja_ and _lirra_ and do not use them, because they all know, among themselves, who is personally related, and who is not. They are only used casually when conversing with strangers, to whom they wish to explain their family relationship."[710] [708] L. Schultze, _loc. cit._, p. 238 (Finke River natives). [709] _Ibid._, p. 240. [710] _Ibid._, p. 237. We read of the Arunta: "To their children they are, we may say uniformly, with very rare exceptions, kind and considerate, carrying them, the men as well as the women taking part in this, when they get tired on the march, and always seeing that they get a good share of any food."[711] Here it is stated explicitly that the cares are shared by father and mother. In another place the authors, speaking of the burial ceremonies, say that the display of grief and sorrow is not so much due to real feeling, as to tribal custom and fear of offending the dead one's spirit. And they add, "At the same time, he (the native) is certainly capable of genuine grief and of real affection for his children."[712] The foregoing statement appears to be very emphatic. Parental love is apparently quoted as a genuine feeling conspicuous _par excellence_ and therefore to be opposed to any other more or less fictitious display. The intimate connection between the mother and her child appears also from some details in the initiation ceremonies.[713] [711] Spencer and Gillen, _Nat. Tr._, pp. 50, 51. [712] _Nat. Tr._, p. 511. [713] _Ibid._, pp. 227, 250.