Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/159

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III
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
133

Coorong by the whites, is probably a corruption of the word "Gurrangh," which means south-east.

The Yuin is another instance of a tribe in which the class system is in a decadent condition. There are no class names, or even traces of them, but very numerous totems scattered over the country, as is the case in the tribes with descent in the female line. But in this case the totem names are inherited from the father, and not from the mother. The totem name was called Budjan, and it was said to be more like Joïa, or magic, than a name; and it was in one sense a secret name, for with it an enemy might cause injury to its bearer by magic. Thus very few people knew the totem names of others, the name being told to a youth by his father at his initiation. In many cases I found that men had two Budjan, one inherited, and the other given by some medicine-man at his initiation. The following is the list of the totems which I obtained from the Yuin old men:—

YUIN TRIBE

Totem Names. Totem Names.
Kaual-gar kangaroo Burimi bream
 ? emu Gumbera black snake
Wungalii bush-rat Umbara black duck
Guragur kangaroo rat Jaruat a small owl
Merigong dingo Tiska a small owl
Munyunga eagle-hawk Kumbo fat
Wagora crow Janan-gabatch Echidna histrix (?)
Gurung-aba pelican Bilinga grey magpie
Berimbarmin white-breasted cormorant Merrit-jigga bandicoot
Burnagga lace-lizard Ngariba water-hen
Murumbul brown snake Gunimbil  ?

Although the totem was little more than a name, it still followed the old exogamous rule of not marrying within itself, although in this tribe the locality governed marriage, as in other tribes with male descent, such as the Kulin and Kurnai.

From this point along the coast northwards the evidence which I have is very fragmentary, and affords little or nothing to show the social organisation of the coast tribes north of Sydney.