298 R. H. MATHEWS. 



thence up that river to its source in Forest Hill ; thence 

 from Forest Hill to Oape Howe ; and thence along the 

 sea-coast back to Geelong. Then all the tribes who 

 inhabited the region included approximately within these 

 limits had a marriage system of which I shall now give 

 as full a summary as the space available in this journal 

 will permit. 



In 1898 I communicated to the Anthropological Society 

 at Washington, U.S.A., 1 a short account of the intermarry- 

 ing laws and inaugural ceremonies of these people, but 

 during subsequent journeyings among the remnants of 

 the tribes referred to, evidence has accumulated which 

 enables me now to speak more definitely than was 

 formerly possible. 



As in all other Australian tribes, marriages are regu- 

 lated by a system of betrothals, which are made by the 

 elders after a child is born, and not infrequently before 

 that event. For example, they wish to determine what 

 woman is the proper wife for a boy A. The old men 

 know who is the father of A, whom we may designate B; 

 from this they find O the father of B, or A's grandfather 

 in the paternal line." Next they discuss who was a sister 

 of O, whom we shall denominate D. Then, a daughter of 

 one of D's children will be the correct wife for A. That 

 is, a brother's son's child mates with a sister's son's child. 

 This is the regular or direct rule of marriage. 



If C's son's child be allotted a spouse who is D's 

 daughter's child, the result is the marriage which I have 

 tentatively distinguished as " rare," when dealing with the 

 Ngeumba tribes in earlier pages. 



1 " The Victorian Aborigines — their Initiation Ceremonies and Divis- 

 ional Systems," American Anthropologist, Vol. xi., pp. 325 - 313, with map. 



2 At the Wonggoa ceremony of initiation described farther on, the 

 sacred bullroarer is exhibited to the novices under the title of their 

 "father's father." 



