34 them, caused by the bones of the Mura-mura Kuyi-mokuna.30 Leaving that place he went to Wokadani,31 where the female Mura-mura Wariliu-luna 32 formerly came out of the earth and gave birth to her many children, the murdus, which then ran off into different districts, where they settled themselves. Thus Nura-wordu-pununa travelled til at Ugapadia 33 the favourable wind ceased for a long time, and he formed a wide depression as he turned round smelling the wind as it blew first from one 'direction and then from another. Then stretching his neck westward towards his home, he formed the creek which leads to Kaparamana.3 Then the wind blew direct from his home, and hastening on, and continually waving his tail with joy, he formed the windings of the creek, down which the flood-waters followed after him. Thus he passed by Mandikillawidmani, where the Mura-mura Darana at one time stayed the rain by sticking his kandri 36 in the middle of the creek channel. Then he came to Wonna-mara,37 where he made rain by means of the Wonna-mara song, and then, passing by the home-place of the Mura-mura Daranà,38 he arrived at Yulku-kudana,39 where, raising his neck to enable him to look round, he saw his camp and his wife. Then he hastened to it, and made a camp at Pando (Lake Eyre), at the place called Nura-wordu-pununa, where, with his wife, who had also become a kadimarkara. he sank deeper and deeper into the earth. 30 This appears to refer to another legend which relates how the Murdus (when animals) came out of the earth in an island in Lake Perigundi (Lake Buchanan), and being revived by the heat of the sun, got up and went away as human beings in every direction. See our paper on Muramura legends, Journal Anthrop. Inst., No 31 The appadeer of the maps. Shown in the maps as Kopperamana. This is incorrect, for the Dieri word Kapara-mara, that is, "root-hand." It has some reference to the barter which took place here between the Dieri and the neighbouring tribes. Kapara, in this connection, has a meaning which approaches ou word "master." 33 In Dieri, mandikilla equals "a wave or waves," widmana equals 66 'to thrust into," because it was there that the Mura-mura Darana, according to another legend, stayed a great flood by thrusting his kandri into the river-bed. A kandri is of wood, and is best described as a somewhat curved, heavy, round stick, about three feet in length, which can be used either to throw or strike with. It also forms a ceremonial staff" on certain occasions. 66 Wonna is the woman's digging-stick, also her club. Wonna-mara is the name of a female Mura-mura who made rain, her song being used by Darana. Dara-is equals "waste, desert." 36 Yulku, in Dieri, means the lowest part of the neck; kudana equals "to lie down, or lower." Referring to the Mura-mura lowering his neck to hasten to his camp. 1 The fossil remains of diprolodin birds and other extinct marsupials found at Lake Callabunna and other places in the deltas of the rivers flowing into Lake Eyre are considered by the aborigines to be the remains of the kadimarkara. In these two legends, and in two others, the kadimarkaras are all spoken of as being reptiles, being also identified as woma, i.e., carpet-snakes. The connection of these legends with the sacred ceremonies comes out, especially in one relating to the ceremony of the Mura-mura Nodumpa, also a kadimarkara, which are common to the tribes in the Cooper with those further to the north, being held at Farrar's Creek.? The legends have probably been original explanations of the occurrence of fossil remains, but it is just possible that there may be even a fossilised remembrance of the actual existence of these extinct creatures. I believe the late Professor Tate considered the deposits at Lake Callebunna to be Pliocene, but it may prove that they are Quarternary, and that the kadimarkaras and the aborigines were contemporaries. In a paper on the origin of the aborigines of Australia and Tasmania, I have shown reasons for believing that their ancestors inhabited Australia at a period when there was a land-bridge between it and Tasmania, and the discovery of fossilised marsupial bones under the sand-bed in the Great Buninyong Mine bearing cuts and scratches with some sharp instrument, show that man then inhabited Australia. 1 See fossil remains of Lake Callabona, E. G. & E. C. Sterling and A. H. C. Zeety, p. 45, Memoirs of the Royal Society of S.A., Vol. I., Part II. 2 See Journal Anthrop. Inst. (quote). 3 (quote). ON THE MARRIAGE RULES OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. By A. W. HOWITT. IN studying the marriage rules of the native tribes of Australia I have found it advantageous to use certain diagrams, which admit of a more ready comparison of their principle and scope, and which have suggested some interesting conclusions. These diagrams have been formed from the direct evidence derived from tabulated statements of actual marriages and descents in the tribes respectively dealt with. The marriage rules are all based upon the division of the tribe into the intermarrying exogamic moieties. This is now well established, but I mention it as the starting point of my explanation. The further statement seems necessary, namely, that every relationship which I shall mention is not an individual relationship, but a group relation, consisting of what may be spoken of as "own" and also "tribal" relations. The series of diagrams commence with the most simple form known to me, namely, that of the marriage rule which obtains in some of the Lake Eyre tribes, of which I take the Ugarabana as my example. These people occupy the western and north-western shores of Lake Eyre. They are the Urabunna of Spencer and Gillen, whose form of the class names I use, namely, Mathurie and Kirarawa. It will be seen, by comparison with Diagram II., that they are identical with the Dieri Murdus, or classes, Matteri and Kararu. The explanation of this diagram will serve for the following ones. (1) and (6) are brother and sister, so are (5) and (2). Marriage is brought about by betrothal, commonly of children, for instance of (1) and (2), and each such arrangement necessarily includes an exchange of a sister, own or tribal, of (1) as a wife for (5), the brother of (2). The children of these two couples are "nupa" to each other. As Spencer and Gillen put it (p. 65), “a man is nupa to the daughter of the elder brothers of his mother," which includes, as will be seen from the diagram, also the elder sisters of his father. The man (3) is therefore the proper husband of the woman (7), but he only acquires the special right by reason of betrothal; otherwise he remains one of the group of males who are "nupa" to the group of females to which she belongs. DIAGRAM II. This diagram represents the marriage rule of the Dieri tribe in the south-eastern side of Lake Eyre. This diagram differs from the former in that there is introduced another level in the generation. The individual numbers (3) and (6) are not relatively the same. Here No. (3) is the daughter and not the son of (2), and the respective children in this level are not in a relation equivalent to "nupa," but in another, kami," which prohibits intermarriage. It is only in the next following level that this is lawful, the relation being termed "noa," which is the analogue of "nupa" of the Ugarabana. A further distinction may be indicated as follows:-" Ego being a Dieri male, my proper wife is the daughter of my mother's mother's brother's sister's daughter's daughter," therefore also of the mother's mother's sister's sister's daughter's daughter. The incohate right is not, as in the Ugarabana case, restricted to the elder line in the descent. We see here that first the intermarrying relation is pushed on by one level; second, that the "noa"-"nupa" relation is not restricted by seniority. The latter appears to be more primitive than the Ugarabana rule; the former is clearly an innovation upon it. The explanation of the "noa" relatior by the Dieri is that those who are "kami" are "too near to each other." The change, therefore, may be fairly accepted as an intentional one to prevent that which is an abomination to the Dieri, namely, "buyulu parchana," or the unlawful coming together of those who are, according to their system of relationship, too near to each other. That the institution of the kami relation overriding an earlier nupa" right has been a comparatively later innovation is shown by the fact that Ugarabana men have been married to Dieri women who were according to the Dieri rule kami to them, but from the Ugarabana standpoint nupa. These marriages were only brought about by the men making gifts to the mothers of the women, by whom principally the betrothal (promising) is made, and who under such an arrangement stand in the relation to such men, not of paiara but or "kami-paiara," or as I may put it, "kamimothers-in-law." These two cases relate to tribes having the two-class system, which Occupy or occupied a very large area in Central Australia, and also extended south to Port Lincoln. Before illustrating the marriage rule of certain coast tribes which also had the two-class system, it is advisable to show what the rule is in tribes which have not only the two classes, but also their respective subdivision into two, making a system which most frequently appears under the guise of four classes, the original two classes being in abeyance, or even lost. The best instance will be that of the Kanuluroi-speaking tribe of New South Wales. The study of this marriage rule is complicated by the peculiar manner in which the marriage and descents in the four sub-classes have been, no doubt unintentionally, arranged. The four-class system is as follows: KupathinIpai. Kumbo. Murri. Dilbi Kubbi. The feminine of each name is formed by the addition of 66 tha." As Kupathin marries Dilbitha, where children are Dilbitha, we have here a clear equivalence with the Dieri classes, and their diagram would be generally like that of the Ugarabana. Omitting the two-class names, the marriage and descents in the four sub-classes give the following diagram (1) Ipai DIAGRAM III. (4) Kubbi > (5) Ipatha 1. (3) Matha (6) Bortha (7) Kubbi (8) Ipatha |