116 



R. H. MATHEWS. 



language and initiation ceremonies have already been pub- 

 lished by me. 1 Beyond a few fragmentary and inaccurate 

 outlines, practically nothing has hitherto been published 

 respecting the sociology of the Wongaibon community. 

 Several of their subdivisions have never been even men- 

 tioned by any author until now. A table will be used to 

 illustrate the letterpress. 



TABLE VI. 

 Wife. 



Phratry. 

 Ngumbun 



Ngurrawa 



Husband. 

 Murri 

 Kubbi 



( Ippai 

 ( Kumbo 



Ippatha 

 Butha 



Matha 

 Kubbitha 



Son. 

 Kumbo 

 Ippai 



Kubbi 

 Murri 



Daughter. 

 Butha 

 Ippatha 



Kubbitha 

 Matha- 



Besides the divisions shown in the table, every individual, 

 male and female alike, claims some animal or plant or other 

 object as his totem. Each phratry and the sections of 

 which it is composed possesses a further distinctive division 

 into Guaigullimba and Guaimundhan, signifying swift blood 

 and sluggish blood respectively. These may be called 

 44 blood " divisions or castes. There is still another repar- 

 tition of the community, which can be distinguished as 

 44 shade " divisions. These divisions are in reality an 

 extension of the 44 blood " castes, and regulate the camping 

 places of the people under the shades of large trees. 



Intermarriages are regulated as follows : — A man of the 

 Ngurrawan phratry and Ippai section marries a Ngumbun 

 woman of the Matha section. This is the normal rule of 

 marriage. In such a case, a man's son's child marries his 

 sister's son's child. But it is quite lawful for Ippai to 

 espouse an Ippatha. which represents the marriage of a 

 man's son's child with his sister's daughter's child. These 

 two alliances are the equivalents of Choolum marrying 

 Ningulum and Noolum respectively in Table IV. 



1 This Journal, xxxvi., pp. 147 

 xi., pp. 167 - 169. 



154; Proc. Boy. Geog. Soc. (Queensland), 



