of the people of the nature of caste. By means of family names, they are divided into four classes. Ippai, Murri, Kubbi, and Kumbo, are the names of the men; and their sisters are respectively Ippata, Mata, Kapota, and Buta. In one family all the males are called Ippai, the females Ijipata; in another all the males are Murri, the females Mata; in a third all the males are Kubbi, the females Kapota; and in a fourth all the males are Kumbo, all the females Buta. Every family in all the Kamilaroi tribes, over a large extent of country, including Liverpool Plains, the Namoi, the Barwan, and the Bundarra, is distinguished by one of these four sets of names. The names are hereditary; but the rule of descent differs from any other ever heard of. The sons of Ippai (if his wife be Kapota) are all Murri, and his daughters Mata; the sons of Murri are Ippai, and tHe daughters Ippata; the sons of Kubbi are Kumbo, the daughters Buta; the sons of Kumbo are Kubbi, the daughters Kapota. The law of marriage is founded on this system of descent. They have no law against polygamy; but while their law is not careful about the number of a man's wives, it denounces capital punishment against any one who marries one of the wrong sort. The rule is this:—Ippai may marry Kapota, and any Ippata but his own sister; Murri may marry Buta only; Kubbi may marry Ippata only; Kumbo may marry Mata only. Iu some respects, for instance in the larger marriage choice, Ippai is a favored class; but many who exercise a kind of authority are Kumbo, and in the course of a few generations every man's descendants come into the class of Ippa as well as into that of Kumbo."
The natives of Port Essington are divided into three distinct classes, which do not intermarry. The first is known as Maudrojilly, the second as Mamburgy, the third as Maudrouilly.[1]
Of late years this subject has been more carefully investigated. The Rev. Lorimer Fison has collected a great deal of useful and important information, and has had the assistance of the Rev. W. Ridley and other gentlemen in New South Wales. Mr. Fison, jointly with Mr. Howitt, undertook to prepare a paper for this work on Australian Kinship. Printed circulars were forwarded to settlers in nearly all parts of Australia; and though only a few replies have been received, it is possible that before my labors are completed Mr. Fison and Mr. Howitt will be able to submit new views on this highly interesting subject. Mr. Howitt has already arranged the system of kinship as it exists in eastern Gippsland, and his paper is appended.
In the proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (vol. III.) there is a paper on Australian Kinship, written by Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, from original memoranda of the Rev. Lorimer Fison, and many difficult questions arising out of the divisions into tribes and classes are lucidly treated. Mr. Morgan refers more especially to the Kamilaroi people. They are divided into six tribes, and there is a further division into eight classes. After reviewing the facts and conclusions, as given in Mr. Fison's memoranda, Mr. Morgan says:—
"Out of the preceding statements we have the full constitution of the tribes, with the several classes belonging to each. The classes are in pairs of
- ↑ Stokes, vol. I., p. 393.
