THE TOTEMIC DIVISIONS OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 161 
the preceding paragraph it becomes apparent that the old law 
already stated still holds good, namely, that the Kupathins are 
the fathers of the Dilbis, and vice versa; and also that the Dilbis 
and Kupathins reciprocally give their sisters to each other for 
wives. 
It has been shown that Matha is the mother of Kubbitha, and 
vice versa, and it will appear farther on that Murri is the uncle 
of Kubbi. It is therefore possible, that the group Dilbi was 
divided into Matha and Kubbitha to distinguish the mothers from 
the daughters ; and that the terms Murri and Kubbi were adopted 
to provide names for the uncles and nephews of their respective 
generations. These remarks will equally apply to the men and 
women of the [ppai and Kumbo sections. Whatever may have 
been the origin of these divisions into groups and sections, they 
have the effect of preventing consanguineous marriages, by furnish- 
ing an easy test of relationship when the tribe has become so 
numerous or widespread that kinship could not otherwise be well 
determined. 
Although marriages generally follow the laws above stated, 
there are family regulations to which I referred in my former 
papers on this subject,! under which a Dilbi man of a certain 
totemic family may marry a Dilbi woman of a different totem 
belonging to his own section, and a Kupathin man may avail 
himself of the same privilege. These family regulations are so 
widespread that they are found more or less in all the tribes of 
the Kamilaroi, Wiradjuri, and most of the other tribes having 
the Kamilaroi organisation with which I am acquainted. They 
were, perhaps, introduced to meet some inconvenience, arising in 
certain circumstances from the observance of the marriage laws 
already explained; but whether their adoption preceded or 
followed the division of the groups into sections, or whether they 
were in force before the division into groups took place, is a 
controversial = which need not now be discussed. 
Roy. Geo og. Soe. J Aust. (Q.), x., 24; American Anthropologist 
Heinle , Ix., 412 
K—Aug. 4, 1897, 
