NOTES ON SOME NATIVE TRIBES OF AUSTRALIA. 101 
sister, but some of his father’s brothers might have 
daughters, who would be called his (Ngumburi’s) sisters, 
and thus supply the Ngummundyerra marked B in Table 2, 
This custom also serves another useful purpose, by 
means of which we can explain why some old men have 
very young wives. Let us suppose that the Ngumburi 
last mentioned was the eldest of his father’s family. He 
(Ngumburi) might easily have a younger brother who was, 
say, fifteen years his junior. This younger brother, Z, 
who would in time be the father of a daughter, who would 
fill the place of Ngummundyerra B in Table 2. Again, 
Ngumburi might marry early and his tribal sister late, so 
that by a number of circumstances, all probable enough, 
Murruri No. 1 might get a wife who was twenty or thirty 
years younger than himself, although she would be of the 
strictly proper lineage. 
It has been said in an earlier page that the totems, con- 
sisting of everything alive and inanimate, are subject to the 
same divisions and subdivisions as the people themselves. 
Many of the plants, animals, etc., possess the same rela- 
tionship to each other as the people, a few examples of 
which will be given from the Kurnu. The iguana, carpet- 
snake and brown-snake are brothers and sisters; the por- 
cupine and bandicoot are similarly related; so are the emu 
and native companion. The turtle has no relations; neither 
has the mussel nor the crayfish. The relationships of 
brother-in-law, maternal uncle and many others are also 
current. These kinships extend to inanimate nature as 
well; a spring may be related to a tree; certain stars are 
brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and so on. 
II. SHARING GAME AND OTHER Foon.’ 
There isa universal custom in every native camp, which 
regulates the partition of all kinds of game and vegetable 
1 See also my remarks on food regulations in the article contributed to 
this Society in 1904, Vol. xxxvull., p. 258, seq. 
