842 REPORT— 1888. 



or families, does not appear to be derived from the practice of capture, as some 14 

 peoples, representing so early a stage of the maternal system as to have resilience 

 in the wife's family, a state of things which could not have followed from capture, 

 nevertheless already forbid marriage -wdthin the clan. With reference to the Hev. 

 Lorimer Fison's argument that the Classiticatory System of Relationships described 

 in North America, Hindostan, &c., by the Hon. L. H. Morgan, results directly from 

 exogamy in its Australian form, it is here further shown by a table of adhosions 

 that the closest connection exists between exogamy and this system of relationships, 

 and also with the rule of ' cross-cousin marriage ' which in several tribes allows 

 marriage between the children of a brother and sister, but not of two brothers or 

 two sisters. By taking these together, it is found that the list of exogamous peoples 

 of the world may be enlarged to over 100. It appears from the testimony of a 

 number of writers that the rule of exogamy, whatever its precise origin, has from 

 the first been a means of binding together tribes and nations by intermarriage* 

 between the clans or groups of which they are composed, and thus resisting the 

 disintegrating effects of quarrels, which would separate in permanent hostility the 

 small isolated communities which endogamy tends to form. A community which 

 marries in has no allies outside ; these can only be gained by intermarriagu, and 

 savage tribes must again and again have had to face the plain alternative, whether 

 . they would marry out or be killed out. 



It is evident from the tables that the rules of human conduct are amenable to 

 classification, so as to show by strict numerical treatment their relations t<» one 

 another. It is only at this point that speculative explanation must begin, guided 

 and limited in its course by lines of fact. In the words of Prof. Bastian, the 

 future of anthropology lies in statistical investigation. The present paper show» 

 that the institutions of man are as distinctly stratified as the earth on whicjh he 

 lives, succeeding one another independently of difl^erence of race and language, bj 

 similar human nature acting through necessarily changing conditions of savage,, 

 barbaric, and civilised life. 



4. Australian Message-sticks and Messengers. By A. W. Howitt, F.G.S. 



The use of message-sticks is not universal in Australian tribes, and the degree of 

 perfection reached in conveying information by them diflers much. Some tribes, 

 such as the Dieri, do not use the message-stick at all, but make use of emblematical 

 tokens, such as the net carried by the Pinya, an armed party detailed by the 

 Council of Headmen of the tribe to execute its sentences upon oflPenders. Other 

 tribes, such as the Kurnai, use pieces of wood without any markings. Others, 

 again, especially in Eastern Queensland, use message-sticks e.xtensively, which 

 are often elaborately marked, highly ornamented, and even brightly painted. 

 No messenger, who was known to be such, was ever injured. 



The message-stick was made by the sender, and was kept by the recipient of 

 the message as a reminder of what he had to do. 



For friendly meetings the messenger of the Kurnai, of Gippsland, carried a man's 

 kilt and a woman's apron hung on a reed ; but for meetings to settle quar rels or 

 grievances by a set tight, or for hostile purposes generally, the kilt was hun<f upon 

 the point of a spear. 



Among the "WotjoballCik of the Wimmera River in Victoria, the principal man 

 among them prepares a message-stick by making certain notches upon it with a 

 knife. The man who is to be charged with the message looks on, and thus learns 

 the connection between the marks upon the stick and his message. A notch i» 

 made at one end to indicate the sender, and probably notches also for those who- 

 join him in sending the message. If all the people of a tribe are invited to attend 

 a meeting, the stick is notched from end to end ; if part only are invited, then a 

 portion only of the stick is notched ; and if very few people are invited to meet or 

 referred to in the verbal message, then a notch is made for each individual as he i?- 

 named to the messenger. 



The messenger carries the stick in a net-bag, and on arriving at the camp to 

 which he was sent, he hands it to the headman at some place apart from the 



