806 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



brother's child, sister's child, brother, sister, or any of those whom 

 we ourselves call " cousins," either on the father's or on the mother's 

 side. 



4. Nor may it exist between persons of the same totem, for these are 

 regarded as brother and sister, or (the Dieri having uterine descent) 

 mother and son, as the case may be. 



5. A Dieri man, having passed through the Mindrai (peace) ceremony, 

 may have a Pirauru allotted to him.* 



6. The Piraurus being allotted to one another at each great council 

 previous to the ceremony of circumcision, a man, or a woman, being 

 already Pirauru, may thus acquire a new Pirauru relation in addition 

 to those previously acquired. Hence in time any individual may come 

 to have several Pirauru. 



7. Seniority in the man regulates the temporary right to any given 

 Pirauru. Thus, supposing an older man and a younger to be, in camp 

 together, and that the latter had with him a Pirauru, the former, being 

 alone, the older man could lawfully claim the woman, if she were Pir- 

 auru to him also. 



As the Piraurus cannot be of the same class name we have here a 

 number of men belonging to one class married collectively to a number 

 of women of the other class. Thus a number of A men (see Table I) 

 are the Piraurus of a number of B women and vice versa ; and this is 

 clearly a form of group marriage, which, when the two classes meet at 

 the tribal ceremonies, becomes what may be called regulated communal 

 intercourse between the sexes. At other times, when the community 

 is scattered over the tribal country, a man may be found having with 

 him at one time one or more Pirauru, and at another time other women 

 who stand in this relation to him ; or a woman may be found living 

 with several men who are Pirauru to her. To those unacquainted with 

 the custom this presents the aspect of lawless license, or of polygamy, 

 or of polyandry, but it is in fact group marriage.t 



The terms Dilpa malij and Pirauru signify the same relation, the one 

 among the Kunandaburi and the other among the Dieri. They are the 

 terms of relation between two groups, and these two groups in the 

 widest sense are the class divisions A and B (Table I). Here, then, in a 



"Before being fully admitted into membership in the community a youth must pass 

 through the following ceremonies : 1 . Chirinchiri— knocking out two front teeth. 2. 

 Kurawali wonkana — circumcision of boys. 3. Wilyaru — anointing with the blood of 

 an old man. 4. Mindari — the peace ceremony, when the entire community assem- 

 bles. _ 



There is also an traditional rite to which only certain individuals, selected by the 

 old men, are subjected. This is Eulpi, the slitting of the urethra. 



tThe Pirauru custom clearly accounts for the so-called polyandry of the Nairs. 

 (See Mr. J. F. McLennan's Studies in Ancient History, p. 148.) 



t The term Dilpa mali I cannot explain. I am told that the word kodimali means 

 "nothing," in the sense of negation of somethiug of which Nubaia is the expression. 



