LXXII 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



(2) The second division resulted in the four-class system, 

 and prohibited the marriage of brothers and sisters, parents 

 and children, but not that of first cousins. 



(3) The third division, resulting in. the formation of eight 

 sub-classes, prohibited the marriage of brothers and sisters, 

 parents and children, and of first cousins. 



Two things stand out clearly. First, that these dichotomous 

 divisions are the result of deliberate thought and action on the 

 part of the far-back ancestors of the present day aboriginals. 

 Secondly, that, from whatever motives they sprang, they 

 resulted in a gradual restriction of the numbers of mutually 

 marriageable individuals, and it looks very much as if in some 

 oases they were definitely designed to protect the interests of the 

 older men, hacked up, as they take very good care that it always 

 shall be, by the idread of evil magic, in which every native has the 

 most implicit faith, and by which he believes that every breach of 

 tribal rule will, sooner or later, inevitably be punished. 



This deliberate action is seen still more clearly in the arrange- 

 ments made when male and female descent tribes come in contact 

 with one another in order to determine that the marriage arrange- 

 ments of the parents and the descent of the children shall fit into 

 the system of each tribe. 



This can be illustrated by the following table, which shows 

 the actual method by which the counting of descent in the female 

 line in the Urabunna Tribe, with its two moieties, is majde to fit 

 in with the counting of descent in the male line in the adjacent 

 Arunta, with its four classes:— 



(1) Urabunna Tribe. 



Moiety A. — Matthuri male marries Kirarawa female, 

 children are Kirarawa. 



Moiety B. — Kirarawa male marries Matthuri female, 

 children are Matthuri. 



(2) Arunta^ Tribe. 



Moiety A.— 



Panunga male marries Purula female, children *are 

 Bulthara. 

 . Bulthara male marries Kumara female, children are 

 Panunga. 



Moiety B.— 



Kumara male marries Bulthara female, children are 

 Purula. 



Purula male marries Panunga female, children are 

 Kumara. 



