216 R. H. MATHEWS. 



men and women. A secret language in use among the 

 initiated men of the Kamilaroi tribe was reported by me, 

 with vocabulary in 1902. 1 



Sociology of the Thurrawal and kindred Tribes. 



In an article contributed to this Society in 1900, 2 and in 

 other publications, I have described the social organisation, 

 with the laws of intermarriage and descent, among all the 

 native tribes inhabiting the south-east coast of New South 

 Wales from the Hawkesbury River to Cape Howe. The 

 same organisation extends onward among the tribes 

 throughout the eastern half of Victoria. 



In late j- pages of the present work I am supplying addit- 

 ional information on the social structure of other commu- 

 nities, under the separate heads of 'Sociology of the tribes 

 of Western Victoria,' and 'Sociology of the tribes of Eastern 

 Victoria,' to which the reader is referred. 



Among many of the tribes in the Northern Territory of 

 South Australia, in the north-west corner of Queensland, 

 and in the northern portion of Western Australia, there 

 are eight intermarrying divisions. Although the tribes 

 in the respective regions mentioned do not fall within the 

 scope of the present treatise, yet I desire to state, in pass- 

 ing, that there is no great difference between their organi- 

 zation and that of the Ngeumba, Kamilaroi, or Thurrawal, 

 as well as that of the tribes of Western and Eastern 

 Victoria. In all of them the selection of a wife or husband 

 is determined through the grand parents of the parties to 

 the matrimonial alliance. In some tribes the totem is 

 perpetuated through the men, whilst in others it descends 

 through the women. 



1 Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S.Wales, Vol. xxxvi., pp. 159 - 160. 

 * Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, Vol. xxxiv., pp. 263, 264. 



