SOCIOLOGY OF SOME AUSTEALIAN TRIBES. 119 



A man of the Muggulu blood and the Butt shade usually 

 marries a Ngipuru woman of the Branch shade, but this is 

 subject to some irregularities. In regard to the offspring, 

 a Muggulu mother produces Muggulu children, who take 

 their mother's Butt shade ; a Ngipuru woman produces 

 Ngipuru children, belonging to the Branch shade. More- 

 over, the children take the mother's totem. 



Intermarriages of individuals of the same totem are 

 forbidden. When a Kilpungurra marries a Mukkungurraga 

 there is no risk of conflict with the totemic regulations. If 

 a Kilpungurra man, however, could mate with any Kilpun- 

 gurraga, it would be possible for the parties to belong to 

 the same totem ; but a Kilpungurraga of the proper lineage 

 could not possibly be of the same "blood caste" as the man. 



As an evidence of the importance attached to the "blood" 

 divisions, they are brought into prominence at the scarring 

 of the bodies of the young men during the initiation cere- 

 monies. A Muggulu youth has his shoulders and chest 

 marked with shorter scars, whilst a Ngipuru youth has 

 longer scars, to distinguish one from the other. See my 

 "Mumbirbirri or Scarring the Body." 1 



My remarks on the absence of exogamy among the Bar- 

 kunjee, apply with equal cogency to all the native tribes 

 who occupied the whole of the western half of Victoria, 

 where the divisions are called Gurogity and Gamaty. Last 

 year I reported certain facts respecting the intermarriages 

 of these divisions, which render exogamy absolutely 

 impossible. 2 



Conclusion. 

 I have elsewhere stated that whether there are two, or 

 four, or eight divisions of the entire community, the 

 principles which regulate marriage and descent among the 



1 This Journal, xxxviii , pp. 262, seq. 2 Loc. cit., pp. 290 and 295. 



