Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/135

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
III
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
109

classes has not been ascertained. Indeed it is open to conjecture that all the tribes which have the Kamilaroi class names are in fact parts of the same great tribal aggregate, although distance may have in some cases practically severed them from each other. This view would also include in this aggregate the Bigambul tribe, which inhabited the Darling Downs and Gwydirdistrict. The Bigambul tribe may be taken as the most northern of those having the Kamilaroi class system, and it is in this part of Queensland that two other systems with four sub-classes meet that of the Kamilaroi. The three tribes which are the examples of this are the Bigambul, the Emon about Taroom, and the Ungorri in the country comprising St. George, Charleville, Nive, Taroom, Surat, and Condamine.[1]

The sub-class names of these tribes and their relative equivalents are shown in the following table:—

Bigambul. Emon. Ungorri.
Hipai Taran Urgilla
Kombo Bondan Anbeir
Murri Barah Wungo
Kobi Bondurr Ubur

The more fully stated class systems of the Emon and Ungorri tribe are as follows:—

EMON TRIBE[2]
Classes. Sub-Classes. Totems.
Taran Nguran emu
Bondan Amu water
Barah Abbul carpet snake
Bondurr Woggun scrub turkey
  1. James Lalor.
  2. Id.