would impair tradition. Yet in Gipps' Laud none could marry a person of his own totem***^ Differing in detail, the marriage laws of Australia are one I in principlcj and barred promiscuous^ intercourse or incest. Implicitly obeyed, and much too intricate to have been devised by a race defective m mental gifts, they either prove its capacity for legislation, or else that it imported its ceremonial law as other wanderers or conquerors have carried theirs within the range of authentic history. g To imagine that the Kurnai tribe invented a complicated I system in order to relieve themselves from a difficulty in which it is gratuitously supposed that they were placed, is to invent a problem for the sake of a theory. No evidence is discoverable to warrant the setting aside the account given by the natives themselves* Tbeir law was handed down from their forefathers, treasured unchanged, obeyed by all without demur, and no instance was known in which passion stirred a member of a tribe to defy the law by
- " The iia-iBos of the classes or totems in ^lipps' Land were tlifferent, i
accortling to ilr. Howitt, from any found elsewhere, Tbey were derived ' from smaU Inrtk. As Mr. Fison remarks, this fact is not deeply important. The Kuratii had the hiatitution, though umler n different mirue. The Narrinyerri tribes had no leaa than eighteen totems derived from quad- rUf>edB, birds, reptiles, and tish. In the name work which recites their totems (*' South Australian Aboriginal Folk-Lore") will be found an amusing instanee of the confused uianner in which peraoiiB, presumed to be conversaut w^th the eustoma of the natives, enlarge upon them. Among the Ukost widely-spread defligDations of totems are the Keelp^UTah (crow)» and Muqwarran feagle). Among printed questions sent to a person who had had many years' experience among the natives w^ere : J 4. Is the tribe divided into claus t I 5. Has each clan a totem Y — that is, some beast, bird^ &c,, the symbol of the tribe ? 6. Arc there class names, or a kind of castes in the tribe ? 7. . . . clan marriagefi . . . If H. . , , Marriage cui^toms and ceremonies. ♦ . . t The answers were : 4. The tribe is divnded into tive dfi^sses, called respectively— Condelkoo,, J Boolkarlie, MoattillkoOj BuUalre, Toopparlie, 5, These clans have no totems whatever, B. There are class names— the Keelparrah and the Muqwarrah» 7* Only a Keelparrah can marry a ilnqwarrah. A Keelparrah must nob^ marry a Keelparrah, nor a Mnqwarrah a Muqwarrah. 8. . . , At times (betrothment) ** whicfx must in due time be carried out. " !2: Blood relations are not allowed to marry. These aborigines are very strict mi thai pmut.
