300 R. H. MATHEWS. 



be called E, who is brought up in the northern tribe, and 

 belongs to it. On reaching manhood, E goes into a tribe, fifty 

 miles westward, and brings home to his own country his 

 betrothed wife. E's sister, however, is taken away to the 

 west in exchange. By and by E's wife presents him with 

 a daughter, whom we shall designate F. Then the boy A 

 of our example is betrothed to the girl F, and he will go up 

 northward to claim her later on, and bring her home to 

 No. 1. The brother of F will also claim A's sister, and take 

 her away to his own district. 



It will be seen by the foregoing examples that the sons 

 remain in their father's tribe or family, but the daughters 

 are taken away into other tribes in return for wives for 

 their brothers. This may be further illustrated by suppos- 

 ing that one family, X, has three sons and three daughters, 

 and another family, Y, has their progeny divided in the same 

 way. The elder son of the X family marries the elder 

 daughter of the Y family; the second son marries the second 

 daughter, and the third son marries the third daughter. 

 Again, the elder son of the Y family takes the elder daughter 

 of the X family in exchange for his own sister, and his two 

 brothers take the second and third sisters in the same way. 



It could of course happen that one family might have all 

 sons, and therefore have no daughters to give in exchange 

 for wives for them, — or they might have all daughters, 

 which would land them in the same predicament, — but this 

 is got over by the following rule of aboriginal society. 

 Supposing there are four brothers, all married and have 

 families. Then each of the four brothers will call all the 

 children his, and the children will in like manner call each 

 of the four men father. The aggregate of these children 

 would probably be equally divided as regards sex, so that 

 the girls could be given in exchange for wives for the boys. 

 The children of several sisters would in a similar manner 



