Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/227

V {| align=center
 * + | Diagram XI
 * Ipai Aa $$\updownarrow$$  Kumbo Ab || $$\nwarrow\nearrow$$ $$\swarrow\searrow$$ || Murri bc  $$\updownarrow$$  Kubbi Bd
 * }
 * }

The diagonal lines show the reciprocal marriages, and the vertical lines the descent. Ipai marries Kubbitha, and their children are Murri and Matha; Kubbi marries Ipatha, and their children are Kumbo and Butha, and so on with the others.

Disregarding the names and using the letters only, the subjoined marriage of Ipai with Kubbitha and the consequent line of descents may be compared with the marriages and descents in the Dieri classes, which are their equivalents.

The line of descent runs in the classes, in the same manner in each diagram, in the female line, but where the sub-classes are developed, it runs through that sub-class which, with the sub-class of the mother, represents her class. The new arrangement is an ingenious restriction on marriage between persons, who in tribes such as the Urabunna are marriageable, but in other tribes, such as the Dieri, are prohibited from intermarriage, by a custom defined by a special term of relationship. The same prohibition is provided automatically by the arrangement of these sub-classes, and strengthens the belief that the arrangement of the classes, and the sub-classes, has been made intentionally to prevent the marriage of those who have been considered to be too near to each other in blood, or, as the aborigines