When I ascertained that the "specialised noa" became so by being made tippa-malku, I found it convenient to use that term, and spoke of the tippa-malku marriage as distinguished from the pirrauru marriage.
But in doing this I find that I have pushed the use of the former term too far, for, properly speaking, it only relates to "betrothal," for instance, of a boy and girl who are noa to each other. It will be necessary therefore to distinguish, as I regret that I have not sufficiently done, between "betrothal" and the "gift" of a woman, for instance, for some great service rendered, such as holding up the corpse at the funeral ceremony.
When the opportunity presents itself, I propose to so far amend my Native Tribes by correcting errors which I regret to find.
Mr. Thomas says at page 294, "The classificatory system, however, is not more closely connected with the pirrauru system than with tippa-malku marriage, and the validity of Dr. Howitt's identification of the pirrauru relation with the kind of group-marriage for whose former existence he argues may justly be challenged."
To show in what manner the classificatory system is, in fact, closely connected with pirrauru, I must enter into details which will require a diagram to make them clear.
That the diagram may be founded on fact, I shall have recourse to the Table of Dieri Marriages and Descents which faces page 159 of my Native Tribes. I take as an illustration the men 1 and 2, with their respective wives 5 and 6 and sons 9 and 11:
Diagram 1.
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1m 2m
5f 6f
9m 11m
