290 B, H. MATHEWS. 



and his sister ; then, the man's son's child marries his 

 sister's son's child. In this case, which is the general 

 custom, a Gurogity marries a Gamatygurk, in accordance 

 with the table. In some instances, however, the man's 

 son's child marries his sister's daughter's child, which gives 

 the exceptional custom of a Gurogity marrying a Gurogi- 

 gurk, subject to the totemic regulations. If a Gamaty 

 man and his sister be taken as an example, the same laws 

 will apply, mutatis mutandis. 



When referring to the origin of the intermarrying divis- 

 ions of Australian tribes in an article read at the Inter- 

 national Congress on Anthropology and Archaeology held at 

 Paris in 1900, I stated that I was quite clear that the 

 system of divisions into sections was not devised for the 

 purpose of preventing consanguineous marriages, but had 

 developed in conformity with the general surroundings. 1 



In 1897 I stated that " the sectional divisions may have 

 been inaugurated for the purpose of a distinctive nomen- 

 clature among members of the same family, ... to 

 distinguish the mothers from the daughters, the uncles 

 from the nephews, and the fathers from the sons, in their 

 respective generations." 2 



In 1900 I ventured to raise a hypothesis that possibly in 

 the distant past the present names of the sections repre- 

 sented small independent tribes, which became incorporated 

 with each other, for the purpose of mutual defence, or for 

 other reasons. 3 This theory was promulgated to evoke 

 discussion among the ethnologists of Europe and America, 

 as to its feasibility or otherwise. On the other hand, the 



1 " Les Indigenes <T Australie," Congres Internat. d' Anthrop. e,t 

 <T Archeol. pr6historiques, Compte Rendu, 12 Session, pp. 488-495. 



2 "Totemic Divisions of Australian Tribes/' Journ. Roy. Soc, N.S.W., 

 Vol. xxxi., (1897) pp. 160-161. 



3 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, Vol. xxxix., p. 564, seq. 1/ Anthropologic, 

 Vol. xiii., pp. 233 - 240. 



