in south-western Victoria described by Mr. Dawson, from whom I quote some passages to complete this part of the subject.[1]
The laws forbid a man marrying into his mother's tribe, or into an adjoining one, or one that spoke his own dialect. A man is allowed to marry his brother's widow, or his own deceased wife's sister, or a woman of her tribe; but he is not permitted to do so if he divorced or killed his wife. He may not marry his deceased wife's daughter by a former husband.
When a married man dies his brother is bound to marry his widow if she have a family, as it is his duty to protect her and rear his brother's children.
The class names given by Mr. Dawson are evidently derived from a system like that of the Wotjobaluk, or from the Buandik, which is practically the same. The descent runs in the female line, as in them. There are what Mr. Dawson calls five "classes," each of which is a bird excepting one, the carpet-snake (boa snake). Kuurokeetch is evidently Krokitch, and Kartpocrap, the pelican. He says these are looked upon as "sister classes," and no marriage between them is permitted. In the more complete system of the Wotjobaluk Garchuka, the long-billed cockatoo, is one of the principal totems of Krokitch, and therefore could not marry with any of the other Krokitch totems. In the same manner Kappatch is Gamutch, and I take it that Mr. Dawson's "boa snake" is Kirtuuk, and is the Moiwuk, the carpet-snake, of the Wotjobaluk, which is a totem belonging to Wartwut, hot wind, a principal totem of Gamutch, and therefore not able to marry any totem of that class.
This seems to me to be an instance of a peculiar development of the social organisation.
In these tribes, according to Mr. Dawson, wives were to be got from a distance, the rule thus falling in line with that of the Wotjo nation. In addition to the law of the classes, there was one which prohibited a man from marrying into his mother's or grandmother's tribe, or into a tribe that spoke his own dialect. The grandmother here spoken of
- ↑ Op. cit.
