Wotjobaluk tribe,[NATIVE
TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 120, 490.] to the Kamilaroi, to the
Ta-Ta-thi,[IBID. p. 494] while female descent and the belief in Baiame
mark the Euahlayi and Wir djuri. [JOURNAL, ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE,
XXV., p. 297.]

These tribes cover an enormous area of country, and, though they have
not advanced to male kinship, they all possess the belief in an All
Father. That belief does not appear to be in any way associated with
advance in social organisation, for Messrs. Spencer and Gillen cannot
find a trace of it in more than one of the central and northern tribes,
which have male kinship, and a kind of local self-government. On the
other hand, it does occur among southern tribes, like the Kurnai, which
have advanced almost altogether out of totemism.

In short, we have tribes with female descent, such as the Dieri and
Urabunna, to whom all knowledge of an All Father is denied. We have
many large and important tribes with female descent who certainly
believe in an All Father. We have tribes of the highest social
advancement who are said to show no vestige of the belief, and we have
tribes also socially advanced who hold the belief with great vigour. In
these circumstances, authenticated by Mr. Howitt himself, it is
impossible to accept the theory that belief in an All Father is only
reached in the course of such advance to a higher social organisation
as is made by tribes who reckon descent in the male line.

CHAPTER III

RELATIONSHIPS AND TOTEMS

Some savants question the intellectual ability of the blacks because
they have not elaborate systems of numeration and notation, which in
their life were quite unneeded. Such as were needed were supplied. They
are often incorporate in one word-noun and qualifying numerical
adjective, as for example--

Gundooee A SOLITARY EMU

Booloowah TWO EMUS

Oogle oogle FOUR EMUS

Gayyahnai FIVE OR SIX EMUS

Gonurrun FOURTEEN OR FIFTEEN EMUS.

I fancy the brains that could have elaborated their marriage rules were
capable of workaday arithmetic if necessary, and few indeed of us know
our family trees as the blacks know theirs.

Even the smallest black child who can talk seems full of knowledge as
to all his relations, animate and inanimate, the marriage taboos, and
the rest of their complicated system.

The first division among this tribe is a blood distinction (I
phratries'):--

Gwaigulleeah LIGHT BLOODED