Part 46 (2/2)

as the senior wife is ”mistress of the camp,” and in such a case the first wife is apt to run away. Vanity and envy, or the desire to be the favorite, thus appear to be the princ.i.p.al ingredients in an Australian woman's jealousy. Meyer (191) says of the Encounter Bay tribe:

”If a man has several girls at his disposal, he speedily obtains several wives, who, however, very seldom agree well with each other, but are continually quarreling, each endeavoring to be the favorite.”

This, it will be observed, is the jealousy two pet dogs will feel of each other, and is utterly different from modern conjugal or lover's jealousy, which is chiefly based on an ardent regard for chast.i.ty and unswerving fidelity. In this phase jealousy is a n.o.ble and useful pa.s.sion, helping to maintain the purity of the family; whereas, in the phase that prevails among savages it is utterly selfish and brutal.

Palmer says[170] that ”a new woman would always be beaten by the other wife, and a good deal would depend on the fighting powers of the former whether she kept her position or not.” ”Among the Kalkadoon,”

writes Roth (141),

”where a man may have three, four, or even five gins, the discarded ones will often, through jealousy, fight with her whom they consider more favored. On such occasions they may often resort to stone-throwing, or even use fire-sticks and stone-knives with which to mutilate the genitals.”

Lumholtz says (213) the black women ”often have bitter quarrels about men whom they love and are anxious to marry. If the husband is unfaithful, the wife frequently becomes greatly enraged.”

George Grey (II., 312-14) gives an amusing sketch of an aboriginal scene of conjugal bliss. Weerang, an old man, has four wives, the last of whom, just added to the harem, gets all his attention. This excites the anger of one of the older ones, who reproaches the husband with having stolen her, an unwilling bride, from another and better man.

”May the sorcerer,” she adds, ”bite and tear her whom you have now taken to your bed. Here am I, rebuking young men who dare to look at me, while she, your favorite, replete with arts and wiles, dishonors you.” This last insinuation is too much for the young favorite, who retorts by calling her a liar and declaring that she has often seen her exchanging nods and winks with her paramour. The rival's answer is a blow with her stick. A general engagement follows, which the old man finally ends by beating several of the wives severely about the head with a hammer.[171]

PUGNACIOUS FEMALES

Jealousy is capable of converting even civilized women into fiends; all the more these bush women, who have few opportunities for cultivating the gentler feminine qualities. Indeed, so masculine are these women that were it not for woman's natural inferiority in strength their tyrants might find it hard to subdue them. Bulmer says[172] that

”as a rule both husband and wife had fearful tempers; there was no bearing and forbearing. When they quarrelled it was a matter of the strongest conquering, for neither would give in.”

Describing a native fight over some trifling cause Taplin says (71):

”Women were dancing about naked, casting dust in the air, hurling obscene language at their enemies, and encouraging their friends. It was a perfect tempest of rage.”

Roth says of the Queensland natives that the women fight like men, with thick, heavy fighting poles, four feet long.

”One of the combatants, with her hands between her knees, supposing that only one stick is available, ducks her head slightly--almost in the position of a school-boy playing leap-frog, and waits for her adversary's blow, which she receives on the top of her head. The att.i.tudes are now reversed, and the one just attacked is now the attacking party. Blow for blow is thus alternated until one of them gives in, which is generally the case after three or four hits. Great animal pluck is sometimes displayed.... Should a woman ever put up her hand or a stick, etc., to ward a blow, she would be regarded in the light of a coward” (141).

”At Genorminston, the women coming up to join a fray give a sort of war-whoop; they will jump up in the air, and as their feet, a little apart, touch the ground, they knock up the dust and sand with the fighting-pole, etc., held between their legs, very like one's early reminiscences in the picture-books of a witch riding a broom-stick.”

”The ferocity of the women when excited exceeds that of the men,” Grey informs us (II., 314); ”they deal dreadful blows at one another,” etc.

For some unexplained reason--possibly a vague sense of fair play which in time may lead to the beginnings of gallantry--there is one occasion, an initiation ceremonial, at which women are allowed to have their innings while the men are dancing. On this occasion, says Roth (176),

”each woman can exercise her right of punis.h.i.+ng any man who may have ill-treated, abused, or hammered her, and for whom she may have waited months or perhaps years to chastise; for, as each pair appear around the corner at the entrance exposed to her view, the woman and any of her female friends may take a fighting-pole and belabor the particular culprit to their heart's content, the delinquent not being allowed to retaliate in any way whatsoever--the only occasion in the whole of her life when the woman can take the law into her own hands without fear or favor.”

WIFE STEALING

This last a.s.sertion is not strictly accurate. There are other occasions when women take the law into their hands, especially when men try to steal them, an every-day occurrence, at least in former times. Thus W.H. Leigh writes of the South Australians (152):

”Their manner of courts.h.i.+p is one which would not be popular among English ladies. If a chief, or any other individual, be smitten by a female of a different tribe, he endeavors to waylay her; and if she be surprised in any quiet place, the ambushed lover rushes upon her, beats her about the head with his waddy till she becomes senseless, when she is dragged in triumph to his hut. It sometimes happens, however, that she has a thick skull, and resents his blows, when a battle ensues, and not unfrequently ends in the discomfiture of the Adonis.”

Similarly G.B. Wilkinson describes how the young men go, usually in groups of two or three, to capture brides of hostile tribes. They lurk about in concealment till they see that the women are alone, when they pounce upon them and, either by persuasion or blows, take away those they want; whereupon they try to regain their own tribe before pursuit can be attempted. ”This stealing of wives is one cause of the frequent wars that take place amongst the natives.”

Barrington's _History of New South Wales_ is adorned with the picture of a big naked man having beside him, on her back, a beautifully formed naked girl whom he is dragging away by one arm. The monster, we read in the text, has come upon her unawares, clubbed her on the head and other parts of the body,

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