PEESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION G. 343 



In memoirs which I have communicated on these subjects 

 to the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain will be found 

 details of the ceremonies of two tribes, in which I personally 

 participated, and as to which I can therefore speak with con- 

 fidence. The Eev. Mr. Fisin, my valued confrere, has also 

 rendered most interesting particulars as to the ceremonies 

 among some tribes of Fiji ; particulars have been given as to 

 the dukchik ceremonies in New Britain ; and, finally, in very 

 numerous works of various authors, details more or less full, 

 partly from observation, partly from hearsay, are given con- 

 cerning the ceremonies of Australian tribes. When all these 

 statements are carefully considered, digested, and completed, 

 we shall find that there is far more to be said on this subject 

 in its Australasian aspect than is as yet suspected. 



I may note here the most interesting and valuable infor- 

 mation given as to the ceremonies of North American tribes 

 by Mr. Gushing, especially of those of the Zuni Tribe. In the 

 annual reports of the Bureau of Ethnology will be found much 

 bearing on the subject. The field for inquiry is world-wide. 

 Wherever there are savage races in existence, and where they 

 are disappearing before the white man, no time should be lost 

 in recording all that can be learned about their ceremonies 

 before the knowledge of them is lost for ever. 



So far as is at present known, the Australian ceremonies 

 of initiation are to be classed under two types, and, broadly 

 speaking, they may be distinguished from each other by the 

 presence or absence of circumcision, or possibly even by that of 

 the incision, which has been termed by the late Mr. Curr the 

 " terrible rite," but for which I think the Dieri term kulpe 

 might be appropriately used. 



In the present state of knowledge on this subject it may 

 be said that the two types of ceremonies are characteristic 

 respectively of the eastern and western halves of the conti- 

 nent. Approximately the western boundary of New South 

 Wales and of Queensland may be taken to mark the dividing- 

 line, although in Queensland the practice of circumcision and 

 of kulpc extends within that colony more or less. 



A further rough definition may he made by noting the range 

 of the two types of class-system. On the eastern side of the 

 boundary indicated there is found, more or less universally, 

 some form of the well-known kamilaroi class organization, in 

 which there are two primary class names, four sub-class 

 names, and corresponding groups of totems, and with descent 

 either in the female or male line. On the western side of the 

 boundary the prevailing class-system is marked by some form 

 of that of which I have taken the Dieri classes as the type — 

 namely, two primary class names without any sub-classes but 

 with groups of totems. 



