1904. MATHEWS — NATIVE TRIBES OF VICTORIA. 69 



All creation, animate and inanimate, is divided into Gamaty and 

 Gurogity. Attached to each of these phratries are groups of totems, 

 consisting of animals, plants, the heavenly bodies, the elements, 

 etc., lists of a number of which were given in my former treatise.^ 



There is a further subdivision of each phratry into what may be 

 called clans or sections, with distinctive names, taken in some 

 instances from animals and in others from inanimate nature. Each 

 subdivision comprises a number of families bearing different totem 

 names. That is, all the totems of a phratry are apportioned among 

 the sections, some sections (or clans) possessing a certain aggregate 

 of totems and some another. Every individual of a tribe claims 

 some animal or inanimate object as his totem. 



Again, each of these clans has its own spirit-land, called mi'-yur, 

 to which the shades of all its members depart after death. The 

 miyur of a clan is located in a certain fixed direction from the 

 present hunting grounds of the tribe, but the direction of the 

 miyur of each clan differs from that of the others. It may be situ- 

 ated far out in the desert country of the mallee-scrubs, or away 

 towards the setting sun, or in the distant rocky mountains, or 

 elsewhere. 



When a member of a clan dies and is buried, the body is laid 

 horizontally, face upwards, with the head placed towards the part 

 of the horizon which leads to the miyur or spirit-land of the clan 

 to which the deceased belongs. These miyurs are divided into the 

 same two phratries as the people of the tribe. The spirit of a 

 Gurogity man or woman goes to a Gurogity miyur, and a Gamaty 

 spirit travels away to a Gamaty resting-place, conformably to the 

 spirit-home of his clan. 



Each spirit-land has its own description of water. For example, 

 in one miyur the water is gray, in another sparkling, in another 

 reedy, in another dark blue, in another reddish, and so on. 



Between the main dividing range and the seacoast the phratry 



1 American Anthropologist, Vol. xi, pp. ZZl-ll^' 



