August i i, 1904J 



NA TURE 



549 



provide me with a supply of emu flesli and eggs, and 

 so on right through all of the totems. ... It is the 

 duly of every one to supply certain other older people 

 witii food, and this they do cheerfully and un- 

 grudgingly. In this wav and in accordance with the 

 needs and conditions of the community, these savages 

 have long ago settled the question of an old-age 

 pension, or rather they have rendered any such thing 

 quite unnecessary." 



The remarkable marriage-systems of the Arunta 

 and Urabunna are repeated with varying gradations 

 right through the central tribes. As to the " group- 

 marriage " of the Urabunna, the authors now state 

 explicitly that the supernumerary husbands and wives 

 are called Piraiingaru, as amongst the Dierl. The 

 present writer once compared the facts with Mr. 

 Howitt's evidence as to the Dieri custom. The authors 

 repeat with insistence that " individual marriage does 

 not exist either in name or in practice amongst the 

 Urabunna tribe." Again, " this state of affairs has 

 nothing whatever to do with polygamy any more than 

 it has with polvandry," a statement which I confess 



d.iys alter the (death of a 

 discover some clue to the supposed murderer. Warramunga tribe. The 

 are examining the body. 



1 do not understand. They add that this group- 

 marriage is not abnormal, because a gradation to 

 individual marriage can be traced among the other 

 tribes ; but what we suggest is that group-marriage 

 is abnormal for humanity as a whole. As to the con- 

 nection of totemism with the bisectional marriage- 

 system, their conclusion for these tribes is important : — 

 " the two svstems have become associated together in 

 various ways in different tribes, but are perfectly 

 distinct from one another in origin and significance." 

 The account of relationships is fuller than before. 

 New facts as to the custom of exchanging wives are 

 given, and in particular the account of the elaborate 

 Fire Ceremony of the Warramunga, a typical 

 Saturnalia, proves that one object at least of these 

 primitive " bursts," in which everything is topsy-turvy 

 and goes by opposites, is, as the present writer had 

 suggested, to promote harmony and union, " to make 

 every one good-tempered and kindly disposed." 



Two remarkable beliefs, whicli were among the new 

 facts brought to light by the previous work, are found 

 to prevail right through the tribes. These are the 



NO. 181 5, VOL. 70] 



belief that each individual is the reincarnation of an 

 ancestor, and the queer '.lOtion, difficult to regard as 

 absolute, that the intercourse of the sexes has nothing 

 to do with conception. The Urabunna and Warra- 

 munga systems necessitate that in each successive re- 

 incarnation the spirit-child changes its sex, its totem, 

 and its moiety. There are curious folk-tales, in one 

 of which a man propagates himself by fission, in 

 another by a sort of budding ; the hero of another 

 shakes himself, whereupon children emanate from his 

 muscles. We find new " totems," such as darkness, 

 "laughing boy," and " full-grown man," which will 

 give pause to framers of definitions of this very com- 

 prehensive term. Intichiuma ceremonies are actually 

 performed by the Kaitish to increase the supply of flies 

 and mosquitoes ! Further interesting details are given 

 as to those interesting articles, the Churinga, or sacred 

 bull-roarers ; in one case they are used to effect moral 

 amelioration — to lessen a man's appetite and to make 

 him willing to share his food with others, he is rubbed 

 and prodded violently in the stomach with a heavy 

 stone churinga. One incident of the initiation of 

 young men among the Urabunna is a 

 sort of tossing in the blanket — without 

 the blanket; the patient is smacked as 

 he comes down to a chorus of " I will 

 teach you to give me some meat." 

 Everyone here is a worker of magic. 

 Husbands and wives are obtained by its 

 means; the charms of the fair sex are 

 literally "charms." A popular cure 

 for head-ache or stomach-ache is to 

 wear your wife's bonnet or its native 

 equivalent. Among these tribes, as 

 also shown in the earlier work, magic 

 practically takes the place of religion. 

 The Central Australian is a professing 

 atheist ; at initiation he learns that " the 

 spirit creature whom up to that time 

 as a boy he has regarded as all powerful 

 is merely a myth, and that such a being 

 does not really exist, and is cnlv an in- 

 vention of the men to frighten the 

 women and children." In this con- 

 nection one wonders if the Central 

 Australian really represents a more 

 primitive stage of culture than other 

 savages. 



A very full description is given of the 

 tools and implements used by the 

 natives, and of their decorative art. A 

 remarkable application of the latter is 

 to be found in the ground-draw-ings, showing consider- 

 able power of design, which are made for the numerous 

 ceremonies. 



If there is any defect in this fine monument of 

 anthropological science, it is perhaps one that is due 

 to its chief merit — the objective character of the study ; 

 one desiderates further analysis of the psychology of 

 the blackfellow. 



Thanks to investigators like Howitt, Fison, Roth, 

 and Spencer and Gillen, we know the .Australian of 

 the east and centre better than any savage in the 

 world, and we may hope that our authors will be able, 

 before it is too late, to crown their work, already in- 

 valuable, by a study of the western districts, at present 

 a terra incognita. Ernest Crawley. 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY BILL. 



A MEMORANDUM explanatory of the Wireless 



■^ Telegraphy Bill which was introduced by Lord 



Stanley, the Postmaster-General, has been issued as a 



parliamentary paper. We have already referred to the 



to try and 



