Tualcha-mura, that is, actual or prospective mother-in-law, to the boy, who will have a right to wed her daughter when she has one old enough. The rule as thus stated, however, recognises descent through the mother as well as through the father. Besides all this, we are given to understand (see pp. 265, 337) that paternity is not understood. It is distinctly held not to be the direct result of conjugal relations, but, if I rightly apprehend the author's meaning, because some spirit from the Alcheringa seizes an opportunity of reincarnation, or is induced by magical practices to seek such an opportunity. The only occasion, so far as I can discover from the book, when descent is reckoned exclusively from the father is when a man or woman dies leaving Churinga (sacred objects, such as bull-roarers). In the former case they descend to a son if there be one, or if not to a younger brother; and similarly a woman's Churinga descend not to her son, but to her younger brother.[1]
Going back to the totem, as descent reckoned according to European ideas does not regulate the totem, so neither does the totem regulate marriage. This is regulated, as explained above, by the class- or group-system. If we may trust the traditions of the elders, it did once regulate marriage, but in a way contrary to what we should expect from the analogy of other peoples. Our authors are of opinion "that the evidence seems to point back to a time when a man always married a woman of his own totem." How far these traditions may be trusted is a question on which I must reserve judgement. Does the totem regulate the food? To a slight extent. Save in the case of one totem, a man may eat of it, though he must eat sparingly. At the Intichiuma ceremonies (magical rites performed from time to time for obtaining a food-supply), however, he must eat a little of it, if an edible creature, otherwise the supply would fail. The one totem excepted is that of the Achilpa, or wild cat (Dasyurus geoffroyi). Of the wild cat, no man who has ever killed another may eat at any time. Moreover, the totems are largely local in their distribution. No member of the Achilpa totem and no member of the tribe (qy. the tribe dwelling at the local centre of the Achilpa totem?) is allowed to eat of the Achilpa until he is well stricken in years, and then only
- ↑ I am not sure, however, whether this arrangement has not rather for its object the preservation of the Churinga for some unknown reason within a certain class or group of classes within the tribe (see p. 154).
