Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/197

IV be the latter, then the probability arises that by such a loss they were placed in difficulties, which have produced marriage by elopement and the employment of a recognised medicine-man to promote it.

The following diagram is of three descents from two brothers and their sister. The respective terms of relationship are added for the purpose of bringing into view the peculiar character of this system.

The diagram is drawn up to compare with the table of marriages and descents given before for the Dieri tribe. In this one there is a total absence of the marked distinction drawn by the Dieri between the children of a man and those of his sister. Were the Dieri rule applied to this case, the men 4 and 5, being the sons of two brothers, would be Kami-mara to the women 6 and 7, the daughters of 3, the sister of 1 and 2. Further, 8 and 9 would be in the Noa relation to 10 and 11.

It is a striking peculiarity in the Kurnai system that in each level of the descents, as far as they can be traced out, they are all brothers and sisters, own or tribal; and such fraternal descent continues without possible change. Thus in the successive descents produced by the intermarriage of individuals of certain local groups, the fraternal relations would necessarily widen out and ramify in all directions.

The systems of many other tribes, which I have collected, take their places between that of the Dieri and that of the Kurnai. Where the class, sub-class or totem marriages