[Proc. Eot. Soc. Victoria, 34 (N.S.), Pt. J., 1921]. 



Art. 1. — Blood and Shade Divisions of Australian Tribes.'^ 

 By Sir BALDWIN SPENCER, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. 



[Read lOtli March, 1921]. 



Very much confusion and uncertainty exist in regard to what 

 have been described as the blood and shade divisions of Aus- 

 tralian tribes. 



The first really definite allusion to anything of the kind is prob- 

 ably that -qf Bunce in 1895.^ He says: ''The merest observer, 

 who has had the least experience travelling through the bush, 

 must have remarked that there exists a vast difference of com- 

 plexion in the different individuals comprising the various tribes. 

 It is this difference in complexion which constitutes the castes 

 spoken of by Dr. Leichardt. The tribe of aborigines, to which 

 my attention was first directed, in whom I observed this very 

 singular feature in crossing the blood, were a tribe inhabiting 

 a portion of the country on the Condamine River, called Ter- 

 reboo, now fully occupied by the squatters, among whom are 

 John Dangar and Richard Birrell, Esquires. It was the latter 

 gentlemen who furnished me with many interesting particulars- 

 relating to the Terreboo tribes. 



" The two castes were distinguished by the words Cobbi, mas- 

 culine ; and Cobbitha, feminine; Hippi, Jiiasculine; and Hippitha,. 

 feminine.^ The first, or Cobbi and Cobbitha, are those having 

 the blaclvest complexion, and the latter are those many shades- 

 lighter. In their unions, marriages between sexes of the same 

 castes are strictly prohibited, or in other words, a Cobbi must 

 join his fate with that of a Hippitha, and vice versa.'' 



The late Mr. R. H. Mathews^ stated that a form of kinship 

 organisation existed which he described as *' Bloods and Shades,"" 



* Read at the Hobart meeting of the Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sc, held in Mel- 

 bourne, Jan.. 1921. 



1 . Bunce, " Language of the Aborigines of the Colony of Victoria, etc," 

 1859, p. 59. 



2. Cobbi and Cobbitha are evidently the equivalents of the novi^ well- 

 known Kubbi and Kubbitlia ; Hippai and Hippitha those of Ipai and Ipatha. 

 Tlie existence of two other " castes " seems to have escaped the notice of 

 Mr. Bunce and his informant, as also that of the two moieties, Kupathin and 

 Dilbi. "We may conclude that their Icnowledge of the natives was very im- 

 perfect and unreliable. 



3. Mathews, R. H. Proc. R.S., N.S.W., 1905, p. 215 



' 2 



