at any rate, say that the conditions in the area are exceptional;
possibly it was more fruitful than the greater part of the continent; if
so personal property in the shape of trees, etc., which we have already
seen in existence in this area, would play a more important _role_ here,
and may well have determined the transition to patrilineal descent.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] _Fortn. Rev._ Sept. 1905, cf. van Gennep, _Mythes et Legendes_.

[11] It cannot be said that the ordinary theory of the development of
kinship in the female line is satisfactory. The consanguine relation of
mother and child does not appear to be a complete answer to the question
why kinship--an entirely different thing--was reckoned through the
mother; the alleged uncertainty of fatherhood is in the first place
closely connected with an unproven stage of promiscuity and consequently
hardly a _vera causa_, until further evidence of such a stage has been
produced; and again among the Arunta, it is rather potestas than
physical fatherhood which, on their theory, determines the kinship of
the child so far as the class is concerned. For the primitive group
therefore we cannot assert any predominant interest of the mother in the
children nor yet admit that it would necessarily be important if it were
shown to exist.

[12] _Annee Sociologique_ V, 104 sq.; VIII, 132 sq.; Tylor in _J.A.I._
XVIII, 245-272.

[13] Howitt, pp. 220, 225, 234, 248; cf. 159, 269.

[14] _ib._ p. 234.

[15] P. 30 _infra_.

[16] _Ethnological Studies_, p. 141.

[17] Howitt, pp. 193, 224, 227, 236.

[18] _ib._ p. 248, cf. 227.

[19] Howitt, pp. 195, 221, 177, 217.

[20] _ib._ pp. 210, 227, 252, 216, 177, 260.

[21] _ib._ p. 243.

[22] _ib._ p. 219.

[23] _ib._ pp. 232, 257, 236.

[24] _Nor. Tr._ p. 603.

[25] _ib._ pp. 77 n., 114.

[26] Howitt, pp. 263, 255, 198, 195.

[27] Howitt, p. 298.

[28] _ib._ pp. 306, 308 sq.

[29] _Nor. Tr._ p. 23.

[30] Howitt, p. 303.

[31] _ib._ p. 302.

[32] _Nor. Tr._ p. 524.

[33] _Reisen._ IV, 347.

[34] _Petrie's Reminiscences_, p. 117.

[35] _N.Q. Ethn. Bull._ VIII.

[36] _Proc. R.S. Vict._ XVII, 120.

CHAPTER III.

DEFINITIONS AND HISTORY.

Definitions: tribe, sub-tribe, local group, phratry, class, totem kin.
"Blood" and "shade." Kamilaroi type. History of Research in
Australia. General sketch.

Before proceeding to deal with the Australian facts it will be well to
define the termino