Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/151

III the equivalents of those of the Buandik or the Wotjobaluk, and it may be inferred from his long experience that he would not have overlooked them did they exist. It seems to me probable, therefore, that, like others of the coast tribes, these have undergone social changes which have much modified their class systems.

He gives five totems, and says that the two first and the third and fourth form respectively "sister classes":—

The traditions of their origin say that the first progenitor of the tribes, the Kuhkur-minjer, or first great-great-grand-father, was by descent a long-billed cockatoo, who had for wife a Banksian cockatoo, who is called Kuurorappa-moel, or "first great-great-grandmother." Their sons and daughters belonged to the class of their mother.

The first four are totems of the Wotjobaluk, the third is one of the totems of the Gournditch-mara, and the fifth is one of the sub-totems of the Buandik. Some years ago Mr. A. L. P. Cameron was so good as to make inquiries from the natives near Mortlake, which is within the boundaries given by Mr. Dawson, and found that they had the following totemic system:—

He says that Karperap is supplementary to Krokage, and Kartuk to Kubitch. Krokage may marry either Kubitch or Kartuk, and Kubitch may marry either Krokage or Karperap, and the children belong to the mother's totem. These are clearly four of the "classes" given by Mr. Dawson, and it is evident that in "Kuurokeetch" we have Krokage, and that Krokage is the equivalent of Kroki of the Buandik, and Krokitch of the Wotjobaluk; while Kaputch of the Gournditch-mara is Kubitch, or Gamutch of the Wotjobaluk.