20 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



So far as the phratry is concerned the matter of descent is 

 comparatively simple — the child goes into that of its father — 

 but, in the case of the totem, it is at first sight most perplexing. 

 You may, for example, examine first a family in which the father 

 is a witchetty grub and the mother a wild cat, and you may find 

 that, supposing there are two children, both of them are 

 witchetty grubs. In the next family examined, perhaps, both 

 parents will be witchetty grubs, and out of two children one 

 may belong to the same totem and the other may be a wild cat, 

 and so on, the totem names being apparently mixed up in the 

 greatest confusion possible. 



The following table gives the actual totem name of two 

 families, selected at random, who are now living amongst the 

 Arunta in the northern part of the tribe, and may be taken as 

 accurately representative of the totem names found in various 

 families throughout the tribe. Of course the names vary much 

 from family to family, and in various parts of the country, certain 

 totems predominating in some parts and others in other parts. 

 You may, perhaps, for example find yourself in one district of 

 more or less limited area and find one particular totem largely 

 represented : travelling out of this district you may find that 

 special totem b.ut seldom present until you come into another and 

 perhaps distant part — it may be forty or fifty miles away — when 

 again it becomes the principal totem. The reason for, or rather 

 the explanation given by the natives of, this curious local 

 distribution of the totems will be seen subsequently. 



Family 1. — Father, little hawk. Wife No. 1, bandicoot; 

 daughter, witchetty grub. Wife No. 2, kangaroo ; no children. 

 Wife No. 3, lizard ; two daughters, one emu, the other water. 



Family 2. — Father, witchetty grub. Wife No. 1, lizard ; no 

 children. Wife No. 2, Hakea flower ; four sons, respectively, 

 witchetty grub, emu, eagle-hawk, Arrakurta ; two daughters, 

 each witchetty grub. 



Taking these^ as typical examples, it will be seen that the 

 question of totem has nothing to do with marriage so far as 

 either making it obligatoiy on a man of one totem to marry a 

 woman of another, or so far as the totems of their children are 

 directly concerned. 



1 These ai-e only two out of \ery many examined by the authors. 



