162 The Classificatory System of 



"must always marry into the other veve." Remembering that 

 veve means mother, we see that " marrying into the other 

 veve," means " marrying a child of the other mother." In 

 other words, this is exactly the arrangement effected by the 

 Kumite and Krokee, of the Mount Gambler natives, and 

 by the Kilparas and Mookwaras, of the Darling River 

 tribes. 



Mr. Codrington says, " there are no tribes, properly so- 

 called, in all the Melanesian Islands ; nor are there any 

 hereditary chiefs having political power, excepting in the 

 small Polynesian Colonies." The natives rise in rank by 

 "payment of money and pigs," a singular custom, which 

 shows that the Melanesians have a sort of aptitude for the 

 so-called political economy of the day. Mr. Codrington, 

 when he said there are no tribes among the Melanesians, 

 doubtless had in his mind the Polj^nesian tribe, with its 

 recognised chiefs of various grades, and its sharply defined 

 castes ; but where we find the effect of the tribal organisa- 

 tion, we must suspect the existence, either present or past, 

 of the cause ; and it is abundantly evident that the division 

 into the two veve is tribal. 



This partition of the whole nation into two tribes or 

 classes, is the simplest form of the organisation which has 

 for its purpose the breaking up of the intermarriage between 

 brothers and sisters. We find, however, that there has been 

 a tendency to subdivisions of the two principal classes. 

 Various causes may have combined to produce this 

 tendency ; but it seems to me that the tribal organisation, 

 once introduced, must have brought with it a progressive 

 impetus, which would continually impel towards further 

 change, by generating an idea which slowly but surely grew 

 into that of the acquisition and 'personal possession of 

 property. 



This idea must have been altogether foreign to the 

 Communal Family, and that it was of painfully slow growth, 

 is evident from the fact that even at the present day it is 

 but imperfectly developed in nations such as the Fijians, 

 who advanced from the Malay system, through the Turanian, 

 into polygamy ' who can say how many ages ago ? 

 Nevertheless, slow as the growth of the idea undoubtedly 

 was, it certainly had its effect in increasing the number of 

 subdivisions in the tribe. For the first division must have 

 necessitated a partition of the common property, of women, 

 of hunting grounds among the nomad tribes, and of arable 



