the Kupathin phratry, the Kumbo class, and either the emu, bandicoot,
or black snake totems; suppose he marries an emu woman; then his
children are of the Kupathin phratry, the Ipai (or Ipatha) class, and
the emu totem. These regulations are naturally more complicated among
the eight-class tribes; on the other hand, where only phratries and
totems are found, but no classes, descent is much simpler; for in each
case the child takes the phratry and totem of its mother, where
matrilineal descent prevails, or of its father, where patrilineal
descent is found.

The general rule in Australia is that the wife goes to live with her
husband; in other words, she leaves the local group in which she was
born and becomes a member of her husband's local group. The effect of
this is very different according as descent is reckoned through the
mother or through the father. Taking the Kamilaroi again, the
Muri-iguana man brings into his group a Butha-emu woman; their children
are Ipatha-emu. If, therefore, a local group is made up of the
descendants of a single family, the phratry, class, and totem names vary
from generation to generation; for the girls go to other groups, and the
men bring in wives of a phratry, class, and totem different, as a rule,
from their own; the children of the next generation take their kinship
names directly or indirectly from the mother.

If, on the other hand, descent is reckoned through the father, the
phratry and totem names are always the same from generation to
generation; from this it follows that the phratry of the wife, who comes
from without, is also the same from generation to generation, though her
totem name does not of necessity remain the same. The class name
alternates both in the case of the family and of the wives in successive
generations. It has already been pointed out that reckoning of descent
in the male line tends to bring about local grouping of the kinship
organisations. In the eight-class tribes, and in parts of Victoria, the
phratries, elsewhere the totem kins, tend to be or are actually limited
to certain portions of the tribal area.

Our knowledge of these matters has not, of course, been gained at a
bound. Before indicating the present extent of our information, it may
be well to give an historical sketch of early discoveries in this field.

Some seventy years ago the attention of students of primitive social
institutions was drawn to the marriage regulations of the Indian tr