We are informed about the natives of the Cape of York Peninsula and Prince of Wales Islands: "In most cases females are betrothed in infancy, according to the will of the father, and without regard to disparity of age. Thus the future husband may be, and often is, an old man with several wives."[123] [123] Macgillivray, _loc. cit._, ii. p. 8. J. Forrest, speaking of the natives of Central and Western Australia, says: "Betrothal is very general. A child a year old will sometimes be betrothed to an old man, and it will be his duty to feed and protect her, and (unless she is stolen by someone else) when she is old enough she becomes his wife."[124] [124] _Loc. cit._, p. 317. "The girls are not the exclusive property of the father until he thinks fit to give them in marriage to some of his friends; by the law of these people the females, from the time of their birth, are appropriated to certain males of the tribe, and not even the parents have the right to set aside these obligations." If this man dies, the mother may dispose of her daughter.--This refers to the Watchandee tribe of West Australia.[125] The same author writes that elopement is punished in these tribes by the death of the female, and a severe ordeal is imposed on the male; an instance is adduced to illustrate this.[126] The statement is quite unique in this, that it asserts no right of the family to betroth their daughter. On the other hand, we are by no other author informed of such a thing as a man having an _a priori_ right to a girl. We are led to the supposition that these male individuals are simply men belonging to the right marriage class. For undoubtedly in an exogamous tribe, having four or eight classes and being not too numerous, the number of marriageable individuals must have been very limited, and one of them might have had some special prerogatives. This supposition would also account for the severe punishment inflicted in case of elopement with a man to whom "she did not lawfully belong," viz. with an individual of the improper class. Otherwise this statement would be contradictory with all the others, and we could hardly harmonize it with the general view we form of the aboriginal marriage rules. [125] Oldfield, p. 249. [126] _Ibid._, pp. 249, 250.