MARRIAGE AND DESCENT AMONG AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 123 



venient to enunciate that the phratries are formed and maintained 

 by the women. 



Having illustrated the structure of the phratries, I will now 

 pass on to very briefly show the rules of marriage among the 

 subdivisions, and the descent of the resulting offspring. The three 

 tables explain themselves — the father, mother, son and daughter 

 of each division being shown on the same line across the page. 

 In Table No. 1, where the phratry is undivided, the offspring take 

 their mother's denomination direct. In Table No. 2, in which 

 the phratry is bisected, the progeny take the name of the comple- 

 mentary division in the mother's phratry, thus, — Butha's children 

 are Ippai and Ippatha, and Ippatha's progeny are Kumbo and 

 Butha. In some districts, instead of the marital laws following 

 the order set out in the table, there are what I have termed 

 ''alternative" marriages, for example — a Murri, male, marries an 

 Ippai, female, and vice versa; a Kubbi, male, takes a Kumbo, 

 female, as his partner, and vice versa. The descent of the children, 

 however, is not affected by this variation — the offspring of an 

 Ippatha, for example, being always Kumbo and Butha, no matter 

 whether she is united to a Kubbi or a Murri husband. 



Table No. 3 shows the Wom-by'-a organisation, in which the 

 phratry is divided into four sections. By the ordinary or "direct" 

 rules of marriage, Choolum takes Ningulum as his spouse, and the 

 issue of the union are Palyarin and Palyareenya. But Choolum 

 can exercise the alternative right of marrying a Nooralum woman' 

 and in such case the offspring will be Bungarin and Bungareenya. 

 Again, Cheenum takes Nooralum as his regular mate, and his 

 "alternative" wife is Ningulum, the name of the resulting progeny 

 being determined by the mother, as before. Similarly, Jamerum 

 can marry either a Palyareenya or a Bungareenya woman, and 

 Yacomary's wife is Bungareenya, with the alternative of Palyar- 

 eenya. In the pairs of sections, Chingulum and Ghooralum, 

 Bungarin and Palyarin, in phratry B, marriage and descent follow 

 the same alternative rules, mutatis mutandis. In consequence of 

 polygamy being sanctioned, it is possible for a man to take one 



