a? i ) "2 
aN 
a 
108 R. H. MATHEWS. 
is regulated by locality, and I shall now endeavour to 
describe how this is carried out. The folk-lore of these 
people is full of fabulous tales respecting the progenitors 
of every totem. Some of them were like the men and 
women of our own time, whilst others were mythologic 
creatures of aboriginal fairyland. In those olden days, as 
at present, the totemic ancestors consisted of families or 
groups of families, who had their recognised hunting- 
grounds in some part of the tribal territory. They were 
born in a specific locality, and occupied it by virtue of 
their birthright. Some of them would be, let us say, 
cockatoos, others dogs, others kangaroos, others snakes, 
and so forth. The members of these family groups were 
sub-divided into the same eight sections which we find 
among the people now. 
When one of these legendary individuals died, his spirit 
Was supposed to settle itself in some well known spot in 
his own hunting grounds, such as a rock, or tree, or hill, 
or soakage, or perhaps it went into the ground. The 
individual might, during his lifetime, have identified himself 
with different places, such as where he camped at various 
times, or did a notable deed, or worked some ceremonial in- 
cantation or the like. The sites of these several actions were 
scattered over different parts of the locality he occupied, 
as well as over the hunting grounds of neighbouring 
friendly tribes, whom he was in the habit of visiting. All 
the members of his own family group had, as a matter of 
course, equal rights to the same hunting grounds as he, 
and located their spirits at certain places in a similar 
manner. 
In the course of many generations, all the camping places, 
water-holes, large rocks, springs, hills, trees and remark- 
able objects in their own tract of country would become 
saturated, so to speak, with spirits of all sorts. There 
