sometimes put it, are of "the same flesh." Looking at the diagrams of the Urabunna, the Dieri, and the Kamilaroi, the direction of their progressive development appears to me to be unmistakable.
If we compare the Kamilaroi class system with the foregoing table, it will be seen at once that Ipai and Kumbo are the complements of the class Kupathin, and that the children of Kupathin-Ipatha take the name of Kupathin-Butha. It shows also very clearly that, underneath all this, there lies the two-class system, for the children of Ipatha are as much Kupathin as she is. It has been the absence of the class-names in most of the Kamilaroi tribes, and the ignorance of their occurrence in others, that has made it so difficult to work out the principle's on which the four sub-class system rests.
The following table shows the marriages and descents of the Kamilaroi sub-classes and totems:[1]—
| Male | Marries | Children are | ||
| (1) Ipai of any totem, when Ipai-Kumbo is emu, bandicoot, or black snake | Kubbitha | kangaroo | Murri and Matha | kangaroo |
| Kubbitha | opossum | Murri and Matha | oppossum | |
| Kubbitha | iguana | Murri and Matha | iguana | |
| (2) Kumbo of any totem, when Ipai-Kumbo is emu, bandicoot, or black snake | Matha | kangaroo | Kubbi and Kubbitha | kangaroo |
| Matha | opossum | Kubbi and Kubbitha | opossum | |
| Matha | iguana | Kubbi and Kubbitha | iguana | |
| (3) Murri of any totem, when Murri-Kubbi is kangaroo, opossum, or Iguana | Butha | emu | Ipai and Ipatha | emu |
| Butha | bandicoot | Ipai and Ipatha | bandicoot | |
| Butha | iguana | Ipai and Ipatha | iguana | |
| (4) Kubbi of any totem, when Murri-Kubbi is kangaroo, opossum, or Iguana | Ipatha | emu | Kumbo and Butha | emu |
| Ipatha | bandicoot | Kumbo and Butha | bandicoot | |
| Ipatha | black snake | Kumbo and Butha | black snake | |
Where Ipai-Kumbo is emu, bandicoot, or black snake, then Ipai marries Kubbitha-kangaroo, and go on.
- ↑ Rev. W. Ridley, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. vol. ii. p. 263.
