The relation of children to their parents undergoes an essential change at the time when the former arrive at puberty. At this time they are removed from their parents' immediate presence and control. The girls marry very early, that is they are very early removed from their parents' camp to that of their husband. Boys have to undergo the initiation ceremonies at about the age when the girls marry, and according to all we know never return any more to their parents' camp. The fact of the early marriage of Australian aboriginal females is well known. The age at which it takes place is stated to be from eight to fourteen years of age; but generally the age of about ten to twelve is alleged.[752] [752] Curr states it to vary from eight to fourteen, at various places: _Recollections_, pp. 50, 129, _A.R._, i. p. 107; Meyer in Woods, p. 190, states it to be from ten to twelve; Schürmann in Woods, p. 222, at arriving at puberty; Fraser, p. 2, at a very young age; Eyre, ii. p. 319, at about twelve years of age; Br. Smyth, i. p. 77, very early; Spencer and Gillen at from fourteen to fifteen years of age (_Nat. Tr._, p. 92 and _Nor. Tr._, p. 134); Withnell, p. 8, at about twelve years of age; Parkhouse, _A.A.A.S._, vi. p. 641, at arriving at puberty; Grey, ii. pp. 229, 231, very early. Very important is also the point which Curr emphasizes, viz. that no girl above about sixteen or widow under about forty-five is left unmarried.[753] So that, according to this statement, practically all women who are marriageable would be married. But this is perhaps in contradiction to a couple of statements we shall meet below, which affirm the existence of a camp of unmarried females. So that this point seems to present some ambiguity. At any rate it seems quite certain that unmarried females are not left long in this state. [753] Curr, _Recollections_, p. 129. We know very little as to how far the relations between a girl and her parents cease when she leaves them. Marriage seems to be as a general rule patrilocal; the wife leaves her parents' camp and removes to her husband's. The only exception to this rule will be quoted below (see p. 266). With that, a great part of the parents' influence and contact seem to be necessarily interrupted; for we saw in the discussion on the mode of living that the families camp either separately or in very small groups. And therefore a wife living in her husband's camp would probably not live in the same local group with her parents. And in some cases, where as in the Bangerang the local divisions seem to have been more numerous, or as in the Kurnai the population seems to have been more dense (the local groups living nearer each other), local exogamy prevailed and the girl naturally went away.[754]