These tribes range from Lake Eyre southward, perhaps, as far as the sea.

Their peculiar custom is unknown to the Euahlayi, but Mrs.Parker does not inform us concerning any recognised licence which may, as is usual, accompany their Boorah assemblies, or their 'harvest home' of gathered grass seed, which she describes.
Any reader of Mrs.Parker's book who has not followed recent anthropological discussions, may need to be apprised of the nature of these controversies, and of the probable light thrown on them by the full description of the Euahlayi tribe.

The two chief points in dispute are (1) the nature and origin of the marriage laws of the Australians; and (2) the nature and origin of such among their ideas and practices as may be styled 'religious.' As far as what we commonly call material civilisation is concerned, the natives of the Australian continent are probably the most backward of mankind, having no agriculture, no domestic animals, and no knowledge of metal-working.

Their weapons and implements are of wood, stone, and bone, and they have not even the rudest kind of pottery.

But though the natives are all, in their natural state, on or about this common low level, their customary laws, ceremonials, and beliefs are rich in variety.
As regards marriage rules they are in several apparently ascending grades of progress.