NOTES ON SOME NATIVE TRIBES OF AUSTRALIA. 95 
NOTES on SOME NATIVE TRIBES or AUSTRALIA. 
By R. H. MATHEWS, L.S., 
Associé étranger Soc. d’ Anthrop. de Paris. 
[Read before the Royal Society of N. 8S. Wales, November 7, 1906. | 
In the following pages I shall deal with the sociology, 
language, and customs of some native tribes located in 
parts of the continent far removed from each other. 
I. SOCIOLOGY OF THE KURNU TRIBE. 
In 1902 I contributed a short article to this Society con- 
taining an elementary grammar anda Vocabulary of the 
Kurnt’ language.’ In 1904 I forwarded a supplementary 
grammar of this language to the Anthropological Society 
in Paris.” In the same year I submitted a description of 
their initiation ceremonies to the Anthropological Society 
in Vienna.’ Onthe present occasion an account of their 
sociology will be given. This tribe occupies both sides of 
the Darling River, from Bourke down to Winbar Station, 
extending back both northward and southward into the 
hinterland of the Darling for long distances. Their country 
also reaches up the Warrego River as far as Ford’s Bridge, 
asmall village onthat stream. The information contained 
in the three previous articles above referred to, as well as 
in the present paper, was gathered by me direct from the 
natives. 
The community is nominally divided into two primary 
cycles, moieties, groups or phratries, whichever of these 
hames we choose to employ for purposes of distinction. 
* Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, xxxvi., pp. 154-179. 
? Bull. Soc. d’ Anthrop. de Paris, Serie v., Tome v., pp. 183 — 139. 
* Mitteil. d. Anthrop. Gesellsch. in Wien., Bd. xxxtv., pp. 77-83. 
