THE TOTEMIC DIVISIONS OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 159 
quite reasonable to suppose that the children might be called after 
their mother, because during their infancy and tender years they 
are always with her, and everybody knows they are her children. 
If the old men married young wives, as they do at present, the 
latter would survive them, and consequently have charge of the 
children. Again, the father might be killed in a tribal war, or 
otherwise lose his life, leaving the family to be brought up by the 
mother. i 
Among the Kamilaroi tribes descent is always reckoned on the 
female side, the group and totem names of the father not being 
taken into consideration in this matter. For example, if a Dilbi 
man of a certain totem marries a women who is a Kupathin carpet- 
snake, the children are always Kupathin carpet-snake, the same 
as their mother. The children of the daughters of this marriage 
will also be Kupathin carpet-snake, and so on ad infinitum. The 
same rule applies to all the other Kupathin totems, and likewise 
to all the totems of the Dilbi group—that is, they have perpetual 
succession through the women of their own group. 
It has been stated previously, that the Dilbi and Kupathin 
groups mutually supply each other with wives—the women of 
one group becoming the wives of the men of their own generation 
in the other group. Asthe children of both sexes take the name 
of their mother’s group, as we have just seen, it naturally follows 
that the men of one group are the fathers of the men and women 
of the next generation in the other group, being that from which 
the mothers have been taken. This may be summed up in the 
brief statement, that the Dilbis are the fathers of the Kupathins, 
and vice versa. This paragraph will not, of course, apply to any 
relationship under the family regulations explained farther on. 
The individuals forming the Dilbi and Kupathin groups do not 
collect into certain localities separate from each other, but are 
Scattered indiscriminately throughout the whole territory—mem- 
bers of each group, and consequently of the totems also, being 
found in all the local divisions of the tribe. 
