THE TOTEMIC DIVISIONS OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 171 
The undermentioned are some of the totems attached to Bya 
and Kubbi :—scrub opossum, native bee, emu, bandicoot, eagle- 
hawk, stingaree, wallaroo. The pair of sections Ippai and Kumbo 
have the following totems amongst others:—grey kangaroo, 
diamond snake, wombat, black snake, wallaby. Among the inter- 
sectional or family marriages in this tribe, Kubbi bandicoot could 
marry Kubbitha stingaree. 
THe WrraDsuRI SysTEM. 
Some tribes of the Wiradjuri community who occupy a wide 
tract of country on each side of the Murrumbidgee River from 
about Jugiong to Hay, are divided into four sections, the names 
of the men and women composing which are identical with those 
of the Kamilaroi, with the exception that Oombi is substituted 
for Kumbo. The rules of marriage and descent are, however, 
somewhat different, thus :—Murri marries Ippatha, and the sons 
and daughters are Kumbos and Buthas; Kubbi is united to Butha 
and their issue are Ippais and Ippathas; Ippai takes Matha for 
his wife, and the children are Kubbis and Kubbithas ; Oombi is 
married to Kubbitha, and their offspring are Murris and Mathas 
respectively? 
Whilst travelling amongst these people for the purpose of study- 
ing their customs, I discovered a distinctive feature in the rules 
of descent of the totems,” which has not been recorded by any 
Previous investigator. A mother possessing any given totem 
name produces children whose totem is different to her own. For 
example, Ippatha mallee-hen is the mother of Butha common fly. 
In the next generation Butha common fly is the mother of Ippatha 
mallee-hen, and so on continually. The children therefore take 
the section and totem name of their mother’s mother. As the 
1 The Burbung or initiation ceremonies of the Wiradjuri tribes are 
ibed by me in sii a ‘publications :—Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 
XXV., 295-318, plates ; Ibid., xxvi., 272- 285. Proc. Roy. 
No i, Aust. (Q.), xr., Eis 100. " Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, XXXI.5 
: ey these tribes, the word jin means totem. 
