“While so many young warriors remain unmarried,” his strong voice resumed, “no warrior should be allowed to take more than one wife from our tribeswomen. If he wants more, then let him and his friends form a strong raiding party and raid some enemy tribe for their young women. This was always done by the chiefs and warriors of our tribe from long, long ago, nearly to the time of our present chief and elders. But long since our chief and elders, with the support of the tribal councils, have tampered with the laws to suit themselves, against the well-being of the tribe. Never have they called a council of all the tribe to discuss these new laws they were making on the rights of chief and elders and their friends to take all the young marriageable women! I question not the right of all elder warriors to take those girls who are theirs at birth by right of law. But they have laid claim to all girls, whereas by law since the Dream Time there have always been a certain number of young tribal women who must be kept for the young Bora warriors alone.

“Yet by agreement amongst themselves the chief, the council of the elders, and most of the elder warriors, have long since, for their own selfish benefit, altered the laws that go back even to the Dream Time. That main law said that no man of the tribe—chief, elder, medicine man, or warrior—can take more than one wife from the tribal women if there are not sufficient women to go round. This can be done only at such times when there are more marriageable women than men in the tribe. And while there are unmarried warriors a man whose wife has died cannot claim another wife from the tribal women.

“But our new tribal law says that he can, and all other warriors must form raiding parties at the risk of their lives and carry off young women from enemy tribesmen if they are to have wives. These raids are lawful under the old, true law; I have but obeyed the law, whereas the chief and his elders have disobeyed it by wrongfully dividing all the young women amongst themselves.

“And now, yet again, the chief and the elders say they can claim one of these my captive women, who are now my wives in the sight of all the tribe, as a wife for one of themselves! Now the law has always stated there is no limit to the number of wives a warrior may own, providing he steals them from another tribe. So that these two young women whom I captured from the Coonabarabran tribe are now my wives.

“And now you know why I have been away from the tribe so long. I rightfully went out to steal wives, because a wife from my own tribal women was denied me by the bad laws of the chief and the elders. I claim I have done no wrong. And now I have got my wives. And what I have I hold!”