he "calls" his father's brother "father," he asserts merely that he follows a custom; and the system which gave rise to the custom being no longer in existence, it may surely be supposed that he could indicate distinctions and find words to express his meaning. It is highly desirable to ascertain the ideas that are in the mind of the savage as well as the words in common use when he speaks of his aunt, his uncle, or his cousin. The facts, as regards the nomenclature in Australia, disclose, according to the Rev. Lorimer Fison, the characteristic peculiarities of the Tamilian system, which would support the theory of the migration southward of the progenitors of the native race that occupies Australia, if we did not find the same system amongst the Indians of North America. The theory of migration rests on other grounds; and the likeness in the nomenclature as applied to people akin only shows how from the communal marriage system have arisen gradually other systems under which in-and-in marriages were, if not interdicted, made less numerous, and those between brother and sister absolutely prohibited. The enquiries instituted by the Rev. L. Fisson, the Rev. W. Ridley, and others, and the careful summary of the facts collected by them which is contained in Mr. Lewis Morgan's works, show clearly how the tribes are governed in intermarriage by a kind of sexual classification. But all the facts are not known. The statements made in his letter to me by Mr. Bridgman, of Queensland, and the peculiar arrangement under one and the same division, as ascertained by Mr. Stewart, of Mount Gambler, of things animate and inanimate, show that much is yet to be learnt respecting the principles which guide the natives in placing in classes all that comes within their knowledge. The two classes of the tribes near Mackay in Queensland are Youngaroo and Wootaroo, and these are again subdivided, and marriages are regulated in accordance therewith. But the blacks say alligators are Youngaroo and kangaroos are Wootaroo, and that the sun is Youngaroo and the moon is Wootaroo. Strange to say, this, or something as nearly like this as possible, is found at Mount Gambler. There the pelican, the dog, the blackwood-tree, and fire and frost are Boort-parangal, and belong to the division Kumite-gor (gor = female); and tea-tree scrub, the duck, the wallaby, the owl, and the cray-fish are Boort-werio, and belong to the division Krokee. A Kumite may marry any Krokee-gor, and a Krokee may marry a Kumite-gor. And Mr. Stewart says a man will not, unless under severe pressure, kill or use as food any of the animals of the division in which he is placed. A Kumite is deeply grieved when hunger compels him to eat anything that bears his name, but he may satisfy his hunger with anything that is Krokee. These divisions and subdivisions have an important influence in all arrangements between natives, not only as regards marriage, but also in revenging injuries, in imputing witchcraft, and in the fights that so constantly occur.
The funeral ceremonies of the natives of Australia are perhaps in some respects unlike those of the savages of other parts of the world, but the modes of disposing of the bodies of the dead are similar. The common practice is to inter the corpse; but some are placed in the hollows of trees, some in the beds of running streams, some in caves, some on artificial platforms made of
