AUSTRALIAN DIVISIONAL SYSTEMS. 83 



This table clearly shows that there is matriarchal descent, and 

 Mr. Palmer reports that such is the case. Mr. A. W. Howitt, 

 however, arranges Mr. Palmer's sectional names in a different 

 order to that shown above, and endeavors to show that descent is 

 through the father. He says "under the influence of agnatic 

 descent, the girl is of the same class name as her mother's mother." 1 

 This is not correct, because in the Kamilaroi tribes, where descent 

 is uterine, the daughter always takes the sectional name of her 

 mother's mother. 2 



Mr. Palmer also reported the discovery of four other sectional 

 names among the Koogobathy tribes on the Mitchell River and 

 surrounding country. These divisions he arranged as follows, 

 with the rules of marriage and descent : 3 



Husband Wife Offspring 



Jury Barry Mungilly 



Mungilly Ararey Jury 



Ararey Mungilly Barry 



Barry Jury Ararey 



He stated that Jury was equivalent to Marringo, Mungilly to 

 Yowingo, Ararey to Bathingo, and Barry to Jimmalingo. When 

 I first read Mr. Palmer's paper — having confidence in his general 

 accuracy in other cases — I assumed that descent among the 

 Koogobathy was in the male line ; and in a paper I wrote in 1894, 

 it was stated that there were some tribes in the Gulf country who 

 had agnatic descent. 4 Shortly afterwards I made enquiries through 

 correspondents, who reported that the children belonged to the 

 mother's group, the same as in the Mycoolon tribe. In a paper 

 read before the Royal Society of Queensland in September 1897, 

 I corrected the statement I had made in 1894. 5 



A blackfellow at Charters Towers, who had travelled with 

 drovers to the Palmer river informed me that the descent of the 



1 Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xin., 346. 3 iud., xiii., 304. 



2 Proc. Boy. Geog. Soc. Aust. (Q.), x., 24. * jbid., x., 32. 



5 "Aboriginal Customs in North Queensland." — Proc. Roy. Soc. Queens- 

 land, XIII. 



