418 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



males can marry into one only of the four classes of females. More 

 than this, if the male belongs to one of the first three tribes, the female 

 must belong to one of the opposite three. The first restriction is in 

 opposition to the true ideal of the tribe, because, as will hereafter be 

 seen, a portion only of a tribe is allowed to marry with a portion only 

 of another tribe, demonstrating the proposition before advanced, that 

 the totemic system among the Kamilaroi was in the incipient stages of 

 development. 



The classes are the following : — 



Male. Female. 



1. Ippai. 1. Ippata. 



2. Kumbo. 2. Buta. 



3. Murri. 3. Mata. 



4. Kubbi. 4. Kapota. 



All the Ippais, of whatever tribe, are brothers to each other ; all the 

 Kumbos are the same, and so are the Murris and Kubbis respectively. 

 In like manner, all the Ippatas, of whatever tribe, are sisters to each 

 other ; all the Butas are the same, and so are the Matas and Kapotas 

 respectively. In the next place, all the Ippais and Ippatas are brothers 

 and sisters to each other, whether children of the same mother or col- 

 lateral consanguinei, and in whichever tribe they are found, Kumbo 

 and Buta are the same ; and so are Murri and Mata, Kubbi and 

 Kapota, respectively. Mr. Fison, quoting from the letter of Mr. Lance, 

 remarks, " All Ippais are brothers, and all Ippatas are their sisters, and 

 so also with Kubbis and Kapotas. If a Kubbi meets a Kapota whom 

 he has never seen or heard of before, they address each other as 

 brother and sister." The Kamilaroi, therefore, resolve into four great 

 groups or circles of brothers and sisters. This is the first distinctive 

 feature of the Australian system of kinship, disclosing an organization 

 older than the tribes founded upon sex, and more archaic than any 

 constitution of society hitherto discovered. 



The term classes will perhaps answer for these subdivisions, although 

 not entirely satisfactory. The classification is apparently sub-tribal, 

 but in reality sexual. It has its primary relation to a law of marriage 

 as remarkable as it is original. 



Brothers and sisters are not allowed to marry. They are neces- 

 sarily of the same tribe, except as they are tribal brothers and sisters 

 through the class connection. Therefore the classes stand to each 

 other in a different order with respect to the right of marriage, or the 



