34 MATHEWS— ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA. [March i 7> 



" No. 4." Similarly Chungulla and Chulima can marry either of 

 the women opposite their names in the table as "No. 1" and 

 "No. 2" wives; or they can take Nulima or Nungulla as their 

 " No. 3 " and " No. 4." 



It appears, then, that any specific man in Phratry A can marry 

 any one of the four women opposite to him in the column headed 

 "mother" in the table. Everything which has been said respect- 

 ing the marriages in Phratry A applies equally to the marriages of 

 the men and women in Phratry B. 



All the people have totems, consisting of animals, plants, the ele- 

 ments, and so on, but there is no well established descent of any 

 given totem from the parents to their offspring. Indeed, there 

 could not be any regular succession of the totems in a tribe where 

 the intermarrying laws are as stated in Table I. For example, if 

 descent were through the males, and Changura's totem were a 

 bandicoot, it would not only be liable to be disseminated through 

 the children of any or all the sections in Phratry A, but in the next 

 generation it would be similarly distributed to the children of all 

 the men in Phratry B. Hence, in a tribe where the sociology is so 

 constituted, we discover that in some cases the totems follow the 

 father, in others the mother, and again in other instances the chil- 

 dren inherit the totem of neither parent. The totem of the off- 

 spring is determined by the old men in accordance with customary 

 laws, which need not now be entered upon. 



Space willnot permit of a genealogical tree, but the reader can 

 easily construct one for himself from the following explanation. A 

 study of Table I discloses that Chabuldyi, the first name in the 

 "son" column, has a normal or "tabular" father, Changura. 

 But he may have what we shall distinguish as an "alternative" 

 father. Of these "alternative" fathers Chanima is the most 

 general, whilst Chungulla and Chulima are not so frequent. 



Looking at Table I, we see that Changura's father is Chabuldyi, 

 and the latter' s father is Changura. That is, Changura's paternal 

 grandfather is Changura, the same as himself. Then Changura 

 marries his father's " tabular " father's sister's son's daughter Nun- 

 gulla, as " No. 1" wife already described. Or he marries his father's 

 " tabular " father's sister's daughter's daughter Nabana as " No. 3." 

 Again, Changura may espouse his father's "alternative" father's 

 sister's son's daughter Nulima for "No. 2." Or he can take his 

 father's "alternative" father's sister's daughter's daughter Nan- 

 gilli as his " No. 4 " wife. 



