Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/315

V 4. The brother (1) of the widow's mother.

5. The brother (4) of the widow's deceased husband, provided he had not inherited the property of the deceased.

6. Failing these, he who was nearest after the above-named in the given order of relationship, down to the sixth "joint" (grade), if he have not come into the inheritance of the deceased.

7. Failing all these, the Reippus is to go to the King's purse.

It is quite evident that in this matter the female line is preferred, and is followed down to the utmost limit to which the Teutonic tribes counted their relationships. To make this clear, I must explain the manner in which it was done.

The complete generation commenced with the parents, and the method of counting the relations was by using the joints of the body as grades, beginning with the head, at which the parents were placed. The complete enumeration on this basis was as follows:—

In the next stage there is no joint but a nail, and it was called the naghel-maghe or "nail kindred," because there the kindred ended; sib or "relationship" was contained between the nail and the head. This must be a relic of the very early times, and it is perhaps worth noting as an instance of similarity of practice in tribes in, or emerging from, savagery, that the system of counting by the parts of the human body was also practised by the native tribes of the State of Victoria. Their enumeration commenced at the little finger of the one hand, and went over the head to the little finger on the other hand.