DIVISIONS OF SOME ABORIGINAL TRIBES, QUEENSLAND. 109 



be mentioned Lookwarra, Belthara, Ungella, Drungwarra, Koo- 

 mara, and Gabala, but my enquiries respecting their rules of 

 marriage and descent are not yet completed. 



There is a community of tribes spread over the country drained 

 by the Norman and Yapper Rivers, Spear Creek, Oarron Creek, 

 Walker's Creek, the Lower Gilbert, Byerley's Creek, Pelican Creek, 

 Staaten River, Nassau River, and the lower portions of the 

 Einasleigh and Lynd. 



The most important of the numerous tribes in this area are the 

 Goothanto, Ariba, Koogobathy, Goongarra, Owoilkulla, Wallun- 

 garma, Karantee and Nahwangan. Their territory extends from 

 Woodstock Station on the head of the Norman River to the 

 Nassau River, a distance of about three hundred miles, and having 

 a maximum width of about two hundred miles. Their frontage 

 to the Gulf of Carpentaria reaches from the mouth of the Nassau 

 to the mouth of the Flinders. On the east they are bounded by 

 the Warkeemon nation, whose sectional divisions I reported last 

 year. 1 On the west and south they are bounded by the Mycoolon 2 

 and Kogai-Yuipera 3 nations respectively. I have named this 

 aggregate of tribes the Goothanto nation after the tribe of that 

 name occupying the country around the junction of the Gilbert 

 and Einasleigh Rivers. 



In all the tribes of this nation the people are divided into four 

 sections called Arenia, Arara, Loora and Arrawonga, or else mere 

 variations of these names, with descent in all cases through the 

 mother. To Mr. E. Palmer belongs the credit of first reporting 

 one of the tribes of this organisation. 4 In 1883 he stated that 

 the names of the sections of the Koogobathy tribe, which I have 

 included in the Goothanto nation, as Barry, Ararey, Jury and 

 Mungilly, which are evidently modified forms of the names I have 

 given in Table No. 3. Dr. W. E. Roth, in 1897, referred to 



l Journ. Eoy. Soc, N.S. Wales, xxxn., 250, 251. 2 md., p. 82. 



3 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, Philad., xxxvn., 331 - 333. 



4 Journ. Anthrop. Inst., Lond., xin., 304. 



