MARRIAGE AND DESCENT AMONG AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 129 



As indicated in Table No. 3, Choolum and Palyarin are related 

 to each other as father and son in continuous alternation, and I 

 have found that they have certain totems which descend with them. 

 Thus, Choolum bandicoot is the father of Palyarin bandicoot, and 

 in the next generation Palyarin bandicoot is the father of Choolum 

 bandicoot. The other pairs of sections have aggregates of totems 

 in the same manner, as enumerated in Table No. 4, hereunder : — - 



Table No. 4. 



Choolum (Black-snake, death-adder, bandicoot, eagle-hawk, 

 Palyarin \ blood wood, currant bush, tiger-snake. 



c 

 "c 



Cheenum (Fire, opossum, black-duck, emu, rain, corella, 

 Bungarin \ scorpion, thunder. 



• /Jamerum (Iguana, kangaroo, spinnifex, dingo, lightning, 

 Chooralum ( crow, carpet-snake, pipe-clay. 



i 

 [o Yacomary ^Common hawk, yam, frog, white crane, mopoke, 



^ \Chingulum 1 galah. 



In treating of the " alternative " marriages in an earlier page 

 it was shown that Cheenum could also marry Ningulum, in which 

 case his son would be Palyarin ; and in a similar manner Choolum 

 could be the father of Bungarin. With totems descending from 

 the father to his offspring, in tribes where polygamy is practised, 

 Cheenum's totem could be transmitted to both Bungarin and 

 Palyarin, supposing he takes a wife from each of the sections over 

 which he possesses potential marital rights. I have discovered 

 that, in consequence of the close blood-relationship referred to in 

 the last few paragraphs, the divisions Choolum, Palyarin, Cheenum 

 and Bungarin, are very friendly amongst themselves, and the same 

 totems are more or less in use among these four sections, whom I 

 have accordingly called Moiety A. In other words, the totems 

 particularized in Table No. 4 as belonging primarily to Choolum 

 and Palyarin, are also to some extent common to Cheenum and 

 Bungarin, and vice versa. The same remarks will apply in all 

 respects to the remaining four sections, who are distinguished as 

 Moiety B, in Table No. 4. The men and women of Moiety A 



I— Oct. 3, 1900. 



