ve these delicacies for themselves. We have already seen,
however, that the tribe usually makes some kind of a tardy sexual
provision for its male members, and we shall presently examine this
question more in detail; but the fact remains that the desires of the
young men are not adequately or promptly provided for. They may never
get a wife in the usual course of things, or they may have to delay
marriage for a period of twenty years beyond the point of maturity.
Under these conditions it is to be expected that the young men should
sometimes attempt to obtain women in spite of existing obstructions;
and this is the real significance of elopement. It is, of course, true
that married men sometimes eloped with married women, as with us;
but in some of the Australian tribes the difficulties in the way of
marriage were so great that elopement was recognized as the only way
out:

The young Kurnai could, as a rule, acquire a wife in one way
only. He must run away with her. Native marriage might
be brought about in various ways. If the young man was so
fortunate as to have an unmarried sister and to have a friend
who also had an unmarried sister they might arrange with the
girls to run off together or he might make his arrangements
with some eligible girl whom he fancied and who fancied him;
or a girl, if she fancied some young man might send him a
secret message asking, "Will you find me some food?" and this
was understood to be a proposal. But in every case it was
essential for success that the parents of the bride should be
utterly ignorant of what was about to transpire.[224]

Fison[225] is of the opinion that elopement in this case is caused
by the monopoly of women in the tribe by the older men. Even when the
assent of the parents has been secured, or when the match has been
arranged by the parents of the young people, it is in some cases
necessary to elope because of the reluctance of the men in general to
have a young woman appropriated:

If the woman was caught her female relatives gave her a good
beating. Fights took place over these cases between the girl's
relatives--both male and female--and those of the man. The
women were generally the most excited; they would stir up
the men and then assist with their yamsticks. If the girl
was first caught by other than her own relatives, she would
be abused by all the men; but this never occurred w