xtent excepted,
have a dichotomous kinship organisation. The accompanying map (Map II)
shows how the various forms are distributed. Along most of the south
coast, and up a belt broken perhaps in the northern portion, running
through the centre of the continent in Lat. 137 deg., are found two
phratries without intermarrying classes; for the area west of Lat. 130 deg.
we have, it is true, only one datum, which gives no information as to
the area to which it applies; this portion of the field therefore is
assigned only provisionally to the two-phratry system. On the Bloomfield
River, which runs into Weary Bay, associated with the name of Captain
Cook, is an isolated two-phratry organisation, unless indeed we may
assume that the class names have either been overlooked or have passed
out of use.

The four-class system extends over the greater part of New South Wales,
and Queensland; a narrow belt runs through the north of South Australia
and broadens till it embraces the whole coastline of West Australia, the
north-eastern area excluded. An isolated four-class system, which does
not regulate marriage, is found in the Yorke Peninsula of South
Australia.

The eight-class system forms a compact mass, between the Gulf of
Carpentaria and Roebuck Bay, extending south as far as Lat. 25 deg. in the
centre of Australia.

In reality the rule of the eight-class system extends considerably
further south, but the classes are nameless or altogether non-existent.
Thus, the southern Arunta have nominally four classes, but each of these
has two sections, so that the final result is as though they were an
eight-class tribe. In the same way the marriage regulations of the
two-phratry Dieri are such that choice is limited among them precisely
as it would be if they had eight classes. The same may be true of the
remainder of the western branch of the four-class system, which is
closely allied in name to the Arunta type; the boundary between the
related sets of names is unknown.

Among the Narrinyeri and the Yuin the kinship organisation, which is
confined to totemic groups, takes a local form; here the regulation of
marriage depends on considerations of the residence of the pair. Local
exogamy also prevails among the unorganised Kurnai. The Chepara appear
to have had no organisation, and among the Narrangga ties of
consanguinity constituted the sole bar to marriage. We are not however
concerned with the problems presented by these aberrant