V
MARRIAGE RULES
209
Male | Marries | Children are | |||
(Aa) | (Bd) | (Bc) | |||
Yibai | eagle-hawk (1) | Kubbitha | bush-rat (5) | Murri and Matha | bush-rat (5) |
Yibai | mallee-hen | Kubbitha | flying-squirrel | Murri and Matha | flying-squirrel |
Yibai | opossum | Kubbitha | bush-rat | Murri and Matha | bush-rat |
Yibai | opossum | Kubbitha | flying-squirrel | Murri and Matha | flying-squirrel |
Wumbi | blood-sucker lizard | Matha | young emu | Kubbi and Kubbitha | young emu |
(Bc) | (Ab) | (Aa) | |||
Murri | young emu (3) | Butha | blood-sucker lizard (8) | Yibai and Yibatha | blood-sucker lizard (8) |
Kubbi | bush-rat | Yibatha | eagle-hawk | Wumbi and Butha | eagle-hawk |
Kubbi | flying-squirrel | Yibatha | mallee-hen | Wumbi and Butha | mallee-hen |
Kubbi | bush-rat | Yibatha | opossum | Wumbi and Butha | opossum |
Kubbi | bandicoot | Yibatha | opossum | Wumbi and Butha | opossum |
As an example I give a diagram of one marriage in each class, namely, the first in Yibai, and that in Murri.
Yibai | Murri | ||
m. Aa 1 | m. Aa 3 | ||
f. Bd 5 | f. Ab 8 | ||
m. and f. Bc 5 | m. and f. Aa 8 | ||
etc. | etc. |
This shows that, in the first place, descent is in the female line; in the second, that while the class and the totem descend direct from mother to child, the sub-class is alternatively one of the two which represent the class. Each totem is restricted to marriage with certain totems of the other class, and not, as in the Dieri tribe, for instance, allowed to marry any of those totems.