Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/319

V of tribes with maternal descent. His suggestion does not seem to fit this case. The cognati were all those who sprung from one person, whether male or female. The consanguinei were those who had a common father, while those who had a common mother only were the uterini. As to the familia, it was that which distinguished certain of the cognati from the above definition, namely, those who had their descent through males and were of the same familia.

That which we have here is a group of kindred, who have the same ancestors from whom they descend in the "generatio matris." On this view the group indicated by the law of the Reippus appears to be the first stage from a time when maternal descent prevailed to that time when, as now, paternal descent was the only one recognised. Between these two periods there would be a time when a child had, to use the Anglo-Saxon term, two maegs, one being the paternal and the other the maternal.

The law of Reippus suggests such a case, for the widow's maeg evidently followed that line.

It seems a far cry from the Teutonic tribes to the native tribes of Australia; nor do I suggest any ethnical connection between them, but I do say that many customs of savagery at the present time are evidently the same in character as those of peoples, now civilised, who practised them within the knowledge of classical writers.

If I am right in my conjecture that the law of the Reippus is a survival from the time when descent was counted in the female line, then there are certain similarities of custom in Australian tribes which may serve as sidelights on the Frankish custom.

I have shown in this chapter how universal the exchange of a sister for a wife is in Australian tribes, and each woman is, so to say, the "bride-price of the other."

In tribes with descent in the female line, such as the Dieri, it is practically the group, consisting of the own mother, and the own and tribal brothers of the mother, and of the daughter, which betroths the girl on either side. A