ON THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 11333 
In this diagram A or b is not merely an individual, but also may represent a group 
as large as the whole moiety, for the cases which I have quoted in this memoir show 
that the theory of group marriage in those tribes wherein it now exists is that the 
males of the one moiety of tribes are the potential husbands of those women of the 
other moiety who might lawfully become their individual wives.* In other words, 
sroup A is the husband of group b. But where, as in this section, I am dealing with 
the relation of various individuals to each other, I shall expand the above diagram, as 
shown below :— . 
1A 2A 3A &e. 4a 
5b 6 b——7 b &c. 8B 
9 10 IL 12 
In this diagram the numbers are added merely for convenience of reference. 
1, 2, 3 represent men of one moiety of a tribe; 4 is the sister, own or tribal, of these 
men; 5, 6, 7 represent women of the other moiety of the tribe, the individual or 
group wives of 1, 2, and 8; 8 represents the -brother, own or tribal, of these women -; 
9,10, 11 represent the children of thé respective couples; 12 may stand for the 
children of 4 of 8, or of both, if it be assumed that 4 and 8 stand in the marital 
relation to each other. 
The above diagram may be taken to represent a group of people of the Dieri, 
Kunandaburi, Kungerduchi, or Wakelbura tribes, and in the present instance I take 
Mr. Muirhead’s example of group marriage in the latter tribe. 
It is well to again point out that my researches have now proved, as a matter 
of fact, that group marriage exists in these tribes, and no doubt in the intervening 
tribes over a thousand miles of country. Further, that this group marriage is that of 
a number of men, who are own or tribal brothers, with a number of women, who are 
own or tribal sisters to each other. I take this indisputable fact as a starting point 
in the explanation which I shall now give of the peculiar system of relationships which 
is known to obtain in these tribes. 
This diagram shows at once by inspection that since 1, 2, 3 are in the marital 
relation to 5, 6, 7, the children of these women must of necessity regard each of 1, 2, 3, 
as their father, and be regarded by them as their children. Moreover, since 9, 10, 11 
are all children of the same group-father, they themselves must stand as a group, 
- * That is to say, lawfully as regards their nearness of kin, 
