Female children are sometimes betrothed when they are mere infants—indeed it has been known that a child has been conditionally promised to a man before birth. If it should be a female, and the man should die before the girl attains a marriageable age, then she would become the property of his heir. As a rule, all such obligations are respected. If a girl is betrothed, the father or her male protector may refuse for a long time to give his consent to the marriage, but the lover waits very patiently, in the full confidence that ultimately he will obtain her. Serious fights and troubles ensue sometimes in settling a marriage, and yet it does not often occur that a marriage arranged in strict accordance with the habits of the tribe is not consummated.
A man is supposed to have settled his domestic affairs very comfortably when he has obtained three or four wives; two are far from uncommon; but some are obliged to be content with one.
As girls are usually given in marriage at a very early age, many have the cares of maternity added to their other heavy duties at the age of thirteen, or even when younger.
In their natural state the women appear to be prolific in all localities where food is plentiful. One man of the Coast tribe, near Melbourne, had five wives and eight children; and it is recorded that the principal man of the Yarra tribe, with three wives, had ten children. Wonga, his son, a well-behaved, intelligent black, is now living.
"Jenny," an Aboriginal female living at Lake Hindmarsh, had ten children—once twins; and "Kitty," who is now living, has had thirteen children, of whom the first four were black, the two following half-castes, the seventh a black, the three succeeding half-castes, and the last three blacks.
"Mary," an Aboriginal woman at Lake Wellington, has had twelve children, of whom seven are now living. The parents are strong and healthy.
Australian women not infrequently have twins. The Rev. Mr. Hartmann mentions two cases—and the children were full-blooded blacks.
Mr. John Green says that a boy and a girl—twins—are now living with their parents at the Aboriginal Station at Coranderrk; and that a woman of the Mount Rouse tribe had three children at a birth. They were all full-blooded blacks.
The Rev. Mr. Hagenauer, of the Lake Wellington Station, informs me that he knows only of one case of an Aboriginal woman having twins. One of the twins died when about five years of age; the other, named Caroline, is alive, and is a strong girl of about fourteen years of age.
These facts are not trivial, but few will note the importance and significance of them.[1]
- ↑ One who has written well and thoughtfully on the dialects, habits, customs, and mythology of the Lower Murray Aborigines says, "An instance of twins being born is unknown." This shows how careful one should be in dealing with negative evidence. Though the writer lived for many years in a district well-peopled with natives, he appears to have failed to ascertain the fact that two and three children at a birth are not more rare amongst the Aborigines than amongst Europeans.
Grey says that amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia he recorded four instances of native women having twins; but he never heard of a greater number of children at one birth.
