Kinship. 167 



would have her mother's totem, which he also bears. Of 

 this regulation we find traces in Old Testament History, and 

 in the Laws of Solon. 



The marriage of Abrani with Sarai was of this class ; and 

 even as late as David's time, we note its influence still 

 prevailing, though it was distinctly forbidden by the Mosaic 

 Law. Tamar's objection to Ammon's advances was not that 

 there was any inseparable bar to their union in the nearness 

 of their blood, but that the previous formalities necessary to 

 honourable marriage had not been observed. "Now, 

 therefore," said the poor girl, "I pray thee speak to the 

 king, for he will not withhold me from thee." 



Further inquiry is necessary in order to determine the 

 exact place of this system ; but as far as I can see at present, 

 it seems to be intermediate between the Malayan and the 

 Ganowanian. The females and their children in the female 

 line remain in the tribe, while the male children pass out of 

 it into that whence their fathers came, as among the North 

 American Indians. So far the tribe is complete. But an 

 American Indian has unlimited range in the selection of a 

 wife beyond his own tribe ; whereas there seem to be certain 

 restrictions connected with the totems of the Kamilaroi 

 speaking tribes, which narrow the range of selection. But 

 inasmuch as my information on this point is incomplete, I 

 prefer to await the result of further inquiry, before stating 

 the theor}' I have formed as to these restrictions. Suffice it 

 to say, that the Kamilaroi system appears to be an arrested 

 development of the Ganowanian.* 



Extending our inquiries northward from Sydney, we find 

 the class-names in tribe after tribe ; and though the names in 

 use in certain tribes are words radically different from those 

 of the Kamilaroi, and the totems also vary, nevertheless, 

 the arrangement effected by them, as far as my information 

 goes, is precisely the same ; but as we advance southward, 

 we lose all trace of the clas.s-names. My informants 

 positively assure me that they are unknown to the South 

 Australian tribes ; and this assertion is confirmed by the 

 fact that in those tribes the child is of the father's tribe not 

 of the mother's, as among the Kamilaroi.j^ 



* It is a singular fact, that two at least of the stock languages spokeu by 

 the tribes holding this system — the Kamilaroi and the Wiraithari — derive 

 their title from the negative, which is in the former case Kamil, and in the 

 latter Wirai. 



t This requires qualification. The Mount Gambler Kumite and Krokee 

 are classificatory, and make the child of the mother's tribe. 



