and I am there.'

Blacks were early scientists in some of their ideas, being before
Darwin with the evolution theory, only theirs was a kind of evolution
aided by Byamee. I dare say, though, the missing link is somewhere in
the legends. I rather think the Central Australians have the key to it.
One old man here was quite an Ibsen with his ghastly version of
heredity.

He said, when I asked him what harm it would do for, say, a Beewee
totem man to come from the Gulf country, where his tribe had never had
any communication with ours, and marry a girl here,--that all Beewees
were originally changed from the Beewee form into human shape. The
Beewee of the Gulf, originally, like the Beewee here, had the same
animal shape, and should two of this same blood mate the offspring
would throw back, as they say of horses, to the original strain, and
partake of iguana (Beewee) attributes either in nature or form.

From the statements just given, it will be seen that the Euahlayi are
in the Kamilaroi stage of social organisation. They reckon descent in
the female line: they have 'phratries' and four matrimonial classes,
with totems within the phratries. In their system of 'multiplex-totems'
or 'sub-totems' they resemble the Wotjobaluk tribe. [Howitt, NATIVE TRIBES
OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 121, 125, 453, 455.] The essence of the
'sub-totem' system is the division of all things into the categories
provided by the social system of the human society. The arrangement is a
very early attempt at a scientific system of classification.

Perhaps the most peculiar feature in the organisation of the Euahlayi
is the existence of Matrimonial Classes, which are named as in the
Kamilaroi tongue, while the phratry names are not those of the Kamilaroi,
and alone among phratry names in Australia which can be translated, are
not names of animals. The phratries have thus no presiding animals, and in
the phratries there are no totem kins of the phratriac names. The cause of
these peculiarities is matter of conjecture.

A peculiarity in the totemic system of the Euahlayi--the right of each
individual to kill and eat his own totem--has been mentioned, and may
be associated here with other taboos on food.

The wunnarl, or food taboo, was taken off a different kind of food for
boys at each Boorah, until at last they could eat what they pleased
except their yunbeai, or individual familiar: their Dhe, or family
totem, was never wunnarl or taboo to the