Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/239

V under notice in considering the marriage rules of the tribe adjacent to the northern Wiradjuri, namely, the Wonghibon.

The exceptional marriages of this branch of the Wiradjuri may be illustrated by two diagrams, showing first the marriage of Ipai-mallee-hen with Kubbitha-black-duck, which is according to the usual law of the sub-class; second, the marriage of Ipai-mallee-hen with Matha-bandicoot, which is indeed contrary to the law of the sub-classes.

The following diagram will show how these unusual marriage rules work out:—

The letters and numerals are those attached to the class, sub-class, and totem in the table in Chapter III.

Whatever the marriages are, the children take that sub-class name which they would have under the usual marriage law; that is, Matha's children are Kubbi and Kubbitha of the same totem as their mother. The difference is that under the usual marriage of Ipai with Kubbitha his children would be Murri and Matha.

To the north of the country of the Lachlan Wiradjuri there is the Wonghibon tribe, which in fact appears to be a branch of the former under another name. The sub-classes are the same as those of the Wiradjuri, but the marriages of the sub-classes differ in their arrangement from the rules of the southern Wiradjuri and the Kamilaroi, but agree with the practice just mentioned of their neighbours, the northern Wiradjuri. The subjoined table gives them as made out by Mr. Cameron and carefully revised by me.

The diagrammatic statement of the Wonghibon class system is as follows. The two primary classes are Ngielbumurra, which divides into Ipai and Kumbo, and Mukumurra, which divides into Murri and Kubbi.