4 
220 THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
Is it possible that so many tribes differing in language and con- 
fined by their laws and habits each to its own hunting-ground, 
should have evolved from their own consciousness ceremonies 
- similar, and which, when examined, correspond in so many points 
with the religiousness of the ancient world? How is it that the 
blacks of Australia and the blacks of Guinea have similar ceremo- 
nies of initiation? Is it not because they have come from the 
same ethnic source, and have thus a common ancestry and common 
traditions ? ' 
(B.) Marriage. 
ment as one of the “‘twice-born.” Our boombat, likewise, as soon a8 
his course of Boras is complete, is allowed to take a gw. And 
“ Kamilaroi and Kurnai” systems,* there is little room for original 
research here, and I shall therefore content myself with stating & 
few facts known to me, and a few conclusions therefrom. | 
Our Australian aborigines know nothing of those romantic pre 
liminaries to marriage, love and courtship, which the higher and 
more civilized forms of life have established in society. They 
usage at ds ; her position is that of an inferior ; A 
walks abroad, she follows, as a lackey does his master, wee 
three yards behind, and if he speaks to her, or she to . ver 
walk, he does not stop or turn round to converse, but goes righ all 
with an air of native dignity and conscious superiority, © © 
ge, 
no 
ies unless indeed, when she elopes with some young man; but 
i he woman pul 
is is hazardous to both, for the male relatives 3 ri fend bile 
manage to escape pursuit for a time, they are safe. — bermarryi0g — 
An aboriginal community is divided into aren jnows— 
2 
ne Male eee teeeee Kumbo 
Kubbiths 
1 
is Tpai . 
Female ...... Ipatha: Bathe... Methe. »¢ oe 
7" * Kanilaroi and: Kurnai by Bison & Howitt. Geo. Robertsom ME" 
3 2 f 
