694 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



Marriage, and we need not point out that it is very difterent 

 from actual promiscuity. 



It must be borne in mind that this marriage, as I have 

 already stated, does not necessarily imply actual cohabitation. 

 It is not that all the men of one group actually cohabit with 

 all the women of another group, though even that would not 

 be absolute " promiscuity," but that towards all those women 

 every one of them has a marital right, which may, or may 

 not, be exercised according to other circumstances which 

 have to be taken into account. 



These circumstances in actual life place many restrictions 

 upon the man who wants a wife, but nevertheless his right is 

 something more than a mere theoretical one. For instance, in 

 the Cooper's Creek country, if a native visit a tribe other 

 than his own, and his hosts wish to be hospitable, he will be 

 furnished with a temporary wife from a group which corre- 

 sponds with that which intermarries with his in his own tribe. 

 That this is an established custom is proved by the fact that 

 the natives have signs in their gesture language for an offer 

 of, and a request for that accommodation. 



It is evident from this arrangement that, under the two 

 divisions, a man has a marital right over half of the females 

 in the community, but this right is restricted by other regu- 

 lations. The two primary groups subdivide, their sub- 

 division curtails his right, and other restrictions also come 

 upon him. We may now examine these subdivisions and 

 observe their effect upon the laws of marriage and descent. 



The four classes of the Kamilaroi. — Some of Australian 

 subdivisions are peculiar, and at first sight not a httle puzzling, 

 in their laws of descent. The Kamilaroi classes, Dilbe 

 and Kupathin, for instance, subdivide as follows : — 

 Dilbe, into Ipai and Kumbu. 

 Kupathin, into Muri and Kubai. 



The marriage rite is now restricted. Ipai can no longer 

 marry any Kupathin girl to whom he may take a fancy ; 

 he must marry a Kupathin-Kubai. Muri can no longer 

 marry any Dilbe girJ he likes : he must marry a Dilbe-Kumbu. 

 Hence, we see that a man's choice is now shut up to one- 

 fourth of the girls of his period. 



The law of descent is peculiar. Ipai, for instance, marries 

 Kubitha* — that is to say, a woman of the Kubia class — that 



* The feminine terms take somewhat contracted forms — e.g., Ipaitha con- 

 tracts into Ipatha ; Miuitha into Mathaj Kumbutha into Buthaj Kubaitha 

 into Kubitha. 



