NOTES ON SOME ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 77 



law is the same in the Kamilaroi, Wiradjuri, Chingalee, 

 Arranda, and other tribes, and is no evidence of paternal 

 descent. Moreover, all the ceremonies in connection with 

 the totems are likewise handed down through the men, 

 quite irrespective of how the totems descend. In sum- 

 marizing the social laws of the aborigines, whether in the 

 Northern Territory, New South Wales, or in the other 

 States, we discover that although they vary in all sorts of 

 details yet they agree in the main lines of their organisation. 



In 1904 1 contributed an article to this Society containing 

 a brief account of the sociology of the Ngeumba tribe, in 

 which I reported the existence of certain castes, which I 

 provisionally named Blood and Shade divisions. 1 In order 

 to obtain the bearing of these castes on the social organi- 

 sation it was necessary to prepare the pedigrees of several 

 families to illustrate the laws of intermarriage among them, 

 as well as the descent of the castes to the progeny. I did 

 not at the time publish these genealogies because I had 

 quite sufficient information to satisfy myself, and thought 

 it unnecessary to do any more. Since the publication of 

 my article and its circulation amongst the anthropologists 

 of England, some of them have asked me to publish some 

 of these genealogies so that the people of England and 

 elsewhere may have a chance of forming their own con- 

 clusions from my observed facts. I am therefore now 

 submitting one of the genealogies for publication. 



Before proceeding with the annexed table the reader is 

 invited to peruse my former article which describes the 

 division of the Ngeumba tribe into cycles, sections, and 

 totemic families, with explanatory examples. Besides the 

 divisions just mentioned and quite independently of them, 

 there is another bisection of the community into Guaigulir 

 or active blood, and Guaimundhun or sluggish blood. There 



1 This Journal, xxxviii., 209, seq. 



