Part 46 (1/2)
Sometimes this pa.s.sion breaks out nevertheless, leading to b.l.o.o.d.y quarrels; but the main point is that systematic efforts are made to suppress jealousy: ”No jealous feeling is allowed to be shown during this time under penalty of strangling.” Whence we may fairly infer that under more primitive conditions the individual was allowed still less right to a.s.sert jealous claims of individual possession.
Australian jealousy presents some other interesting aspects, but we shall be better able to appreciate them if we first consider why a native ever puts himself into a position where jealous watchfulness of private property is called for.
WHY DO AUSTRALIANS MARRY?
Since chast.i.ty among the young of both s.e.xes is not held of any account, and since the young girls, who are married to men four or five times their age, are always ready for an intrigue with a young bachelor, why does an Australian ever marry? He does not marry for love, for, as this whole chapter proves, he is incapable of such a sentiment. His appet.i.tes need not urge him to marry, since there are so many ways of appeasing them outside of matrimony. He does not marry to enjoy a monopoly of a woman's favors, since he is ready to share them with others. Why then does he marry? One reason may be that, as the men get older (they seldom marry before they are twenty-five or even thirty), they have less relish for the dangers connected with woman-stealing and intrigues. A second reason is indicated in Hewitt's explanation (_Jour. Anthr. Inst_., XX., 58), that it is an advantage to an Australian to have as many wives as possible, as they work and hunt for him, and ”he also obtains great influence in the tribe by lending them his Piraurus occasionally, and receiving presents from the young men.”
The main reason, however, why an Australian marries is in order that he may have a drudge. I have previously cited Eyre's statement that the natives
”value a wife princ.i.p.ally as a slave; in fact, when asked why they are anxious to obtain wives, their usual reply is, that they may get wood, water, and food for them, and carry whatever property they possess.”
H. Kempe (_loc. cit_., 55) says that
”if there are plenty of girls they are married as early as possible (at the age of eight to ten), as far as possible to one and the same man, for as it is the duty of the women to provide food, a man who has several wives can enjoy his leisure the more thoroughly.”
And Lindsay Cranford testifies (_Jour. Anthrop. Inst_., XXIV., 181) regarding the Victoria River natives that,
”after about thirty years of age a man is allowed to have as many women as he likes, and the older he gets the younger the girls are that he gets, probably to work and get food for him, for in their wild state the man is too proud to do anything except carry a woomera and spear.”
Under these circ.u.mstances it is needless to say that there is not a trace of romance connected with an Australian marriage. After a man has secured his girl, she quietly submits and goes with him as his wife and drudge, to build his camp, gather firewood, fetch water, make nets, clear away gra.s.s, dig roots, fish for mussels, be his baggage mule on journeys, etc. (Brough Smyth, 84); and Eyre (II., 319) thus completes the picture. There is, he says, no marriage ceremony:
”In those cases where I have witnessed the giving away of a wife, the woman was simply ordered by the nearest male relative in whose disposal she was, to take up her 'rocko,' the bag in which a female carries the effects of her husband, and go to the man's camp to whom she had been given.”
CURIOSITIES OF JEALOUSY
Thus the woman becomes the man's slave--his property in every sense of the word. No matter how he obtained her--by capture, elopement, or exchange for another woman--she is his own, as much as his spear or his boomerang. ”The husband is the absolute owner of the wife,” says Curr (I., 109). To cite Eyre once more (318):
”Wives are considered the absolute property of the husband, and can be given away, or exchanged, or lent, according to his caprice. A husband is denominated in the Adelaide dialect, Yongarra, Martanya (the owner or proprietor of a wife).”
A whole chapter in sociology is sometimes summed up in a word, as we see in this case. Another instance is the word _gramma_, concerning which we read in Lumholtz (126):
”The robbery of women, who also among these savages are regarded as _a man's most valuable property_, is both the grossest and the most common theft; for it is the usual way of getting a wife. Hence woman is the chief cause of disputes. _Inchast.i.ty_, which is called _gramma, i.e._, to steal, also _falls under the head of theft_.”
Here we have a simple and concise explanation of Australian jealousy.
The native knows jealousy in its crudest form--that of mere animal rage at being prevented by a rival from taking immediate possession of the object of his desire. He knows also the jealousy of property--_i.e._, revenge for infringement on it. Of this it is needless to give examples. But he knows not true jealousy--_i.e._, anxious concern for his wife's chast.i.ty and fidelity, since he is always ready to barter these things for a trifle. Proofs of this have already been adduced in abundance. Here is another authoritative statement by the missionary Schurmann, who writes (223):
”The loose practices of the aborigines, with regard to the sanct.i.ty of matrimony, form the worst trait in their character; although the men are capable of fierce jealousy if their wives transgress _unknown to them_, yet they frequently send them out to other parties, or exchange with a friend for a night; and, as for near relatives, such as brothers, it may almost be said that they have their wives in common.”
An incident related by W.H. Leigh (152) shows in a startling way that among the Australians jealousy means nothing more than a desire for revenge because of infringement on property rights:
”A chief discovered that one of his wives had been sinning, and called a council, at which it was decided that the criminal should be sacrificed, or the adulterous chief give a victim to appease the wrathful husband. This was agreed to and he _gave one of his wives_, who was immediately escorted to the side of the river ... and there the ceremony was preluded by a war-song, and the enraged chief rushed upon the innocent and unfortunate victim--bent down her head upon her chest, whilst another thrust the pointed bone of a kangaroo under her left rib, and drove it upwards into her heart. The shrieks of the poor wretch brought down to the spot many colonists, who arrived in time only to see the conclusion of the horrid spectacle.
After they had buried the bone in her body they took their gla.s.s-pointed spears and tore her entrails out, and finally fractured her skull with their waddies.
This barbarous method of wreaking vengeance is common among them.”[169]
The men being indifferent to female chast.i.ty, it would be vain to expect true jealousy on the part of the women. The men are entirely unrestrained in their appet.i.tes unless they interfere with other men's property rights, and in a community where polygamy prevails the jealousy which is based in a monopoly of affection has little chance to flourish. Taplin says (101) that
”a wife amongst the heathen aborigines has no objection to her husband taking another spouse, provided she is younger than herself, but if he brings home one older than herself there is apt to be trouble”