NOTES ON SOME NATIVE TRIBES OF AUSTRALIA. 105 
with the worst. If he has a brother present, the brother 
is treated in the same way, and helps the killer of the game 
to eat the poor pieces, which are thrown to him, such as 
the forequarters and ribs of the kangaroos, opossums and 
small quadrupeds, and the back bones of birds. The 
aboriginal narrator of this custom, mentioned that when 
he was very- young he used to grumble because his father 
gave away all the best pieces of birds and quadrupeds, and 
the finest eels, but he was told thatit wasarule and must 
be observed. The women also divide the food they collect, 
which is mainly vegetable. This custom is called ° yirka 
bawhar,’ meaning ‘exchange.’ . . The grey bandicoot 
belongs to the women and is killed and eaten by them, but 
not by the men or children.’” 
Mr. J. P. Gell, reports that among the tribes about 
Adelaide, in South Australia, grubs living in the bark of 
trees were eaten by the men only.* 
Ill. SocIOLOGY OF THE CHAU-AN TRIBE. 
The Chau-an tribe have their hunting grounds on the 
Katherine River and surrounding country. On the south 
they are bounded by the Yungmunni community, about 
Hlsey Creek, whose sociology was described by me for the 
first time in this Journal in 1900.° With the help of a 
capable and reliable resident of that district, I have since 
then been studying the sociology of the Chau-an people; 
and am pleased to be able to supply the following infor- 
* Australian Aborigines of Western District of Victoria, (Melbourne, 
1881) pp. 22 and 52. 
2 Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, (1842), I., p. 112. 
* This Journal, xxxiv., 130. The equivalence of the section names of 
the Chau-an, to those of the Yungmunni tribe about Elsey Creek, is as 
follows:—Plienban is equal to Eemitch, Aratchban to Uwannee, 
Kamaranban to Unmarra, and Wamood to Tabachin. In the lower half 
ot the table, Kangala corresponds to Yungalla, and the remaining sections 
correspond in the order in which they are printed. 
