Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/218

192 The tribes with which the Dieri intermarried did not extend beyond the Yantruwunta who lived up the Cooper for some distance. About 120 miles further there was a tribe, now extinct, which called itself Kurnandaburi.

The similarity of custom and organisation between the Dieri and the Kurnandaburi shows that the intervening tribes were of the same character. The Kurnandaburi class names were Yungo and Matara, which may be compared with the Dieri Kararu and Matted, although the Yantruwunta Tiniwa and Kulpuru intervene; and it is well to note here that the equivalent of the Dieri "murdu" in Yaurorka, Yantruwunta, and Marula is Kamiri. In the following tribes, Ngulubulu, Yelyuyendi, and Karangura, it is Kaura.

In the Ngulubulu, Karangura, Yelyuyendi, and Marula, Wuturu is the equivalent of Matteri, and Parkata of Kararu.

The classes and totems of the Kurnandaburi were both called Gaura and the child took the class and totem of its mother. I have not been able to ascertain whether marriage was restricted to one totem, or whether it was permitted between any of the totems of the opposite class. Gaura-molli is the relation of persons of the same class or totem. The equivalent of the Noa of the Dieri is Abaija. A female child was promised by its parents to some boy or man who was Abaija to her. When married, their relation became Nubaia, which is the specialised Noa before spoken of. Exchange of sisters was the accompaniment of Nubaia. A man and his wife's sister, and the wife of his brother, were in the relation of Kodi-molli, and might not sit in the same camp, or converse freely, but must ostensibly keep apart from each other as far as circumstances would permit. Yet sub rosa marital relations existed between them, and this at times caused trouble between the women. This is clearly the Pirrauru relation of the Dieri, but with a form of apparent tabu, which may very well illustrate a passage from group-marriage to the ultimate form of the Tippa-malku