470 THE TROPICAL AVORLD. 



the corribory jump ; the legs then stride to the utmost, the 

 head is turned over one shoulder, the eyes glare and are fixed 

 with savage energy all in one direction, the arms also are 

 raised and inclined towards the head, and the hands usually 

 grasp the boomerang or some other warlike weapon. The 

 jump now keeps time with each beat, the dancers at every 

 movement taking six inches to one side, all being in a con- 

 nected line led by the first. The line is sometimes doubled 

 and trebled, according to the space and to the number of the 

 performers, and this produces a great effect, for when the front 

 line jumps to the left the second jumps to the right, and thus 

 this strange savage dance goes on with increasing intensity, 

 until it suddenly and instantaneously stops, having attained the 

 highest pitch of vivacity. 



One of the most remarkable facts connected with the 

 Australians is their division into certain great families, such as 

 the Ballaroke, the Tolondarup, the Ngotock, &c., all the 

 members of which bear the same names. These family names 

 are perpetuated and spread through the country by the opera- 

 tion of two remarkable laws — that a man cannot marry a 

 woman of his own family name, and that children of either sex 

 always take the family name of their mother. 



Each family adopts some animal or plant as its Kobong, or 

 badge, and none of its members will kill an animal or pluck any 

 plant of the species to which its Kobong belongs, except under 

 particular circumstances. 



The ceremony of marriage, which among most nations is 

 considered so important and interesting, is with this people one 

 of the least regarded. The woman is looked upon as an article 

 of property, and is sold or given away by her relatives without 

 the slightest consideration of her own pleasure. When a native 

 dies, his brother inherits his wives and children, but his brother 

 must be of the same family name as himself. 



The old men manage to keep the females a good deal among 

 themselves, giving their daughters to one another ; and the more 

 female children they have, the greater is their chance of 

 getting another wife by this sort of exchange. 



A most remarkable law is that which obliges families con- 

 nected by blood upon the female side to join for the purpose of 

 avenging crimes, and as the father marries several wives, and 



