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
Gwaimudthen DARK BLOODED.
This distinction is not confined to the human beings of the tribe, who
must be of one or the other, but there are the Gwaigulleeah and
Gwaimudthen divisions in all things. The first and chief division in
our tribe, as regards customary marriage law, is the partition of all
tribes-folk into these 'phratries,' or 'exogamous moieties.' While in
most Australian tribes the meanings of the names of phratries are lost,
where the meanings are known they are usually names of animals--Eagle,
Hawk, and Crow, White Cockatoo and Black Cockatoo, and so forth. Among
the great Kamilaroi tribe, akin in speech to the Euahlayi, the names of
phratries, DILBI and KUPATHIN, are of unknown significance. The
Euahlayi names, we have seen, are Gwaigulleeah, Light blooded, and
Gwaimudthen, Dark blooded.
The origin of this division is said to be the fact that the original
ancestors were, on the one side, a red race coming from the west, the
Gwaigulleeah; on the other, a dark race coming from the east.
A Gwaigulleeah may under no circumstances marry a Gwaigulleeah; he or
she must mate with a Gwaimudthen. This rule has no exception. A child
belongs to the same phratry as its mother.
The next name of connection is local, based on belonging to one country
or hunting-ground; this name a child takes from its mother wherever it
may happen to be born. Any one who is called a Noongahburrah belongs to
the Noongah-Kurrajong country; Ghurreeburrah to the orchid country;
Mirriehburrah, poligonum country; Bibbilah, Bibbil country, and so on.
This division, not of blood relationship, carries no independent
marriage restriction, but keeps up a feeling equivalent to Scotch,
Irish, or English, and is counted by the blacks as 'relationship,' but
not sufficiently so to bar marriage.
The next division is the name in common for all daughters, or all sons
of one family of sisters. The daughters take the name from their
maternal grandmother, the sons from their maternal great-uncle.
Of these divisions, called I Matrimonial Classes, there are four for
each sex, bearing the same names as among the Kamilaroi. The names
are--
Masculine Kumbo BROTHER AND SISTER
Feminine, Bootha
Masculine Murree BROTHER AND SISTER
Feminine, Matha
Masculine Hippi BROTHER AND SISTER
Feminine, Hippitha
Masculine Kubbee BROTHER AND SISTER
Feminine, Kubbootha
The children of Bootha will be
Masculine Hippi BROTHER AND SISTER
Feminine, Hippitha
The children of Matha will be
Masculine Kubbee BROTHER AND SISTER
Feminine, Kubbootha
The children of Hippatha will be
Masculine Kumbo BROTHER AND SISTER
Feminine, Bootha
The children of Kubbootha will be
Masculine Murree BROTHER AND SISTER
Feminine, Matha
Thus, you see, they take, if girls, their grandmother's and her
sisters' 'class' names in common; if boys, the 'class' name of their
grandmother's brothers.
Bootha can only marry Murree,
Matha can only marry Kumbo,
Hippitha can only marry Kubbee,
Kubbootha can only marry Hippi.
Both men and women are often addressed by these names when spoken to.
A PROPOS of names, a child is never called at night by the same name as
in the daytime, lest the 'devils' hear it and entice him away.
Names are made for the newly born according to circumstances; a girl
born under a Dheal tree, for example, was called Dheala. Any incident
happening at the time of birth may gain a child a name, such as a
particular lizard passing. Two of my black maids were called after
lizards in that way: Barahgurree and Bogginbinnia.
Nimmaylee is a porcupine with the spines coming; such an one having
been brought to the camp just as a girl was born, she became Nimmaylee.
The mothers, with native politeness, ask you to give their children
English names, but much mote often use in familiar conversation either
the Kumbo Bootha names, or others derived from place of birth, from
some circumstance connected with it, a child's mispronunciation of a
word, some peculiarity noticed in the child, or still more often they
call each other by the name proclaiming the degree of relationship.
For example, a girl calls the daughters of her mother and of her aunts
alike sisters.
Boahdee SISTER
Wambaneah FULL BROTHER
Dayadee HALF BROTHER
Gurrooghee UNCLE
Wulgundee UNCLE'S WIFE
Kummean SISTER'S SISTER
Numbardee MOTHER
Numbardee MOTHER'S SISTER
Beealahdee FATHER
Beealahdee MOTHER'S SISTERS' HUSBANDS
Gnahgnahdee GRANDMOTHER ON FATHER'S SIDE
Bargie GRANDMOTHER ON MOTHER'S SIDE
Dadadee GRANDFATHER ON MOTHER'S SIAE
Gurroomi A SON-IN-LAW, OR ONE WHO COULD BE A SON-IN-LAW
Goonooahdee A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, OR ONE WHO COULD BE A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW
Gooleerh HUSBAND OR WIFE, OR ONE WHO MIGHT BE SO.
So relationships are always kept in their memories by being daily used
as names. There are other general names, too, such as--
Mullayerh A TEMPORARY MATE OR COMPANION
Moothie A FRIEND OF CHILDHOOD IN AFTER LIFE
Doore-oothai A LOVER
Dillahga AN ELDERLY MAN OF THE SAME TOTEM
Tuckandee A YOUNG MAN OF THE SAME TOTEM, RECKONED AS A SORT OF
BROTHER.
Another list of names used ordinarily is--
Boothan LAST POSSIBLE CHILD OF A WOMAN
Mahmee OLD WOMAN
Beewun MOTHERLESS GIRL
Gowun FATHERLESS GIRL
Yumbui FATHERLESS BOY
Moogul ONLY CHILD.
Those of the same totem are reckoned as brothers and sisters, so cannot
intermarry. 'Boyjerh' relations, as those on the father's side are
called, are not so important as on the mother's side, but are still
recognised.
Now for the great Dhe, or totem system, by some called Mah, but Dhe, is
the more correct.
Dinewan, or emu, is a totem, and has amongst its multiplex totems' or
'sub-totems'--
Goodoo OR CODFISH
Gumbarl SILVER BREAM
Inga CRAYFISH
Boomool SHRIMPS
Gowargay WATER EMU SPIRIT
Moograbah BIG BLACK-AND-WHITE MAGPIE
Booloorl LITTLE NIGHT OWL
Byahmul BLACK SWAN
Eerin A LITTLE NIGHT OWL
Beerwon A BIRD LIKE A SWALLOW
Dulloorah THE MANNA-BRINGING BIRDS
Bunnyal FLIES
Dheal SACRED FIRE
Gidya AN ACACIA
Yaraan AN EUCALYPTUS
Deenyi IRONBARK
Guatha QUANDONG
Goodooroo RIVER BOX
Mirieh POLIGONUM
Yarragerh THE NORTH-EAST WIND
Guie TREE--OWENIA ACIDULA
Niune WILD MELON
Binnamayah BIG SALTBUSH.
Bohrah, the kangaroo, is another totem, and is considered somewhat akin
to Dinewan. For example, in a quarrel between, say, the Bohrah totem
and the Beewee, the Dinewan would take the part of the former rather
than the latter.
Amongst the multiplex totems of Bohrah are--
Goolahwilleel TOPKNOT PIGEONS
Boogoodoogadah THE RAIN-BIRD
Gilah FINK-BREASTED PARROT
Quarrian YELLOW AND RED BREASTED GREY PARROT
Buln Buln GREEN PARROT
Gidgerregah SMALL GREEN PARROT
Cocklerina A ROSE AND YELLOW CRESTED WHILE COCKATOO
Youayah FROGS
Guiggahboorool BIGGEST ANT-BEDS
Dunnia WATTLE TREE
Mulga AN ACACIA
Gnoel SANDALWOOD
Brigalow AN ACACIA
Yarragerh NORTH-EAST WIND, SAME AS DINEWAN'S.
All clouds, lightning, thunder, and rain that is not blown up by the
wind of another totem, belong to Bohrah.
Beewee, brown and yellow Iguana, numerically a very powerful totem, has
for multiplex totems--
Gai-gai CATFISH
Curreequinquin BUTCHER-BIRD
Gougourgahgah LAUGHING-JACKASS
Deenbi DIVERS
Birroo Birroo SAND BUILDERS
Deegeenboyah SOLDIER-BIRD
Weedah BOWER-BIRD
Mooregoo Mooregoo BLACK IBIS
Booloon WHITE CRANE
Noodulnoodul WHISTLING DUCKS
Goborrai STARS
Gulghureer PINK LIZARD
Goori PINE
Talingerh NATIVE FUCHSIA
Guiebet NATIVE PASSION FRUIT
Boonburr POISON TREE
Gungooday STOCKMAN'S WOOD
Guddeeboondoo BITTER BARK
Boorgoolbean or
Mooloowerh A SHRUB WITH CREAMY BLOSSOMS
Yarragerh SPRING WIND
Muddernwurderh WEST WIND.
Those with whom the Beewee shares the winds he counts as relations. It
is the Beewees of the Gwaimudthen, or dark blood, who own Yarragerh
(spring wind); the light-blooded own Mudderwurderh (west wind).
Another totem is Gouyou, or Bandicoot. The animal has disappeared from
the Narran district, but the totem tribe is still strong, though not so
numerous as either the Beewees or Dinewans.
Multiplex totems of Gouyou--
Wayarnberh TURTLE
Mungghee MUSSELS
Piggiebillah PORCUPINE
Dayahminnah SMALL CARPET SNAKE
Mungun LARGE CARPET SNAKE
Douyouie ANTS
Moondoo WASPS
Murgahmuggui SPIDER
Bayarh GREEN-HEAD ANTS
Mubboo BEEFWOOD
Coolabah EUCALYPTUS, FLOODED BOX
Bingahwingul NEEDLEBUSH
Mayarnah STONES
Gheeger Gheeger COLD WEST WIND
Gibbon YAM
Boondoon KINGFISHER
Durnerh brown PIGEON
Guineeboo REDBREASTS
Munggheewurraywurraymul SEAGULLS
Guiggah ordinary ANT-BEDS.
Next we take Doolungaiyah, or Bilber, commonly known as Bilby, a large
species of rat the size of a small rabbit, like which it burrows;
almost died out now. The totem clan are very few here too, so it is
difficult to learn much as to their multiplex totems, amongst which,
however, are--
Ooboon BLUE-TONGUED LIZARD
Goomblegubbon PLAINS TURKEY OR BUSTARD
Boothagullagulla BIRD LIKE SEAGULL
Tekel Barain LARGE WHITE AMARYLLIS.
Douyou, black snake, totem claims--
Noongah KURRAJONG--STERCULIA
Carbeen AN EUCALYPTUS
Booroorerh BULRUSHES
Gargooloo YAMS
Yhi THE SUN (FEMININE)
Gunyahmoo THE EAST WIND
Kurreah CROCODILE
Wa-ah SHELLS
Douyougurrah EARTH-WORMS
Deereeree WILLY WAGTAIL
Burrengeen JEEWEE
Bouyoudoorunnillee GREY CRANES
Ouyan CURLEW
Bouyougah CENTIPEDES
Bubburr BIG SNAKE
Woggoon SCRUB TURKEY
Beeargah CRANE
Waggestmul KIND OF RAT
Wi SMALL FISH
Millan SMALL WATER-YAM--SOURTOP
Moodai, or opossum, another totem, claims--
Bibbil POPULAR-LEAVED GUM
Bumble CAPPARIS MITCHELLIANNI
Birah WHITEWOOD
Beebuyer YELLOW FLOWERING BROOM
Illay HOP BUSH
Mirrie WILD CURRANT BUSH
Mooregoo SWAMP OAK--BELAH
Mungoongarlee LARGEST IGUANA
Mouyi WHITE COCKATOO
Beeleer BLACK COCKATOO
Wungghee WHITE NIGHT OWL
Mooregoo MOPOKE
Narahdarn BAT
Bahloo MOON
Euloowirrie RAINBOW
Bibbee WOODPECKER
Billai CRIMSON WING PARROT
Durrahgeegin GREEN FROG.
Maira, a paddy melon, claims as multiplex totems--
Wahn THE CROW
Mullyan THE EAGLE-HAWK
Gooboothoo DOVES
Goolayyalilee PELICAN
Oonaywah BLACK DIVER
Gunundar WHILE DIVER
Birriebungar SMALL DIVER
Mounin MOSQUITO
Mouninguggahgui MOSQUITO BIRD
Bullah Bullah BUTTERFLIES
Tucki A KIND OF BREAM
Beewerh BONY BREAM
Gulbarlee SHINGLEBACK LIZARD
Budtha ROSEWOOD
Goodoogah YALLI
Wayarah WILD GRAPES
Garwah RIVERS
Gooroongoodilbaydilbay SOUTH WIND.
It is said a Maira will never be drowned, for the rivers are a
sub-totem of theirs; but I notice they nevertheless learn to swim.
Yubbah, carpet snake, as a kin has almost disappeared, only a few
members remaining to claim
Mungahran HAWK.
Burrahwahn, a big sandhill rat, now extinct here, claims--
Mien DINGO
Dalleerin A LIZARD
Gaengaen WILD LIME
Willerhderh, or
Douran Douran NORTH WIND
Bralgah NATIVE COMPANION.
Buckandee, native cat kin, claim--
Buggila LEOPARD WOOD
Bean MYALL
Bunbundoolooey A LITTLE BROWN BIRD
Dunnee Bunbun A VERY LARGE GREEN PARROT
Dooroongul HAIRY CATERPILLAR.
Amongst other totems were once the Bralgah, Native Companion, and
Dibbee, a sort of sandpiper, but their kins are quite extinct as far as
our blacks are concerned; the birds themselves are still plentiful. The
Bralgah birds have a Boorah ground at the back of our old
horse-paddock, a smooth, well-beaten circle, where they dance the
grotesque dances peculiar to them, which are really most amusing to
watch, somewhat like a set of kitchen lancers into which some dignified
dames have got by mistake, and a curious mixture is the dance of
dignity and romping.
The totem kins numerically strongest with us were the Dinewans,
Beewees, Bohrahs, and Gouyous. Further back in the country, they tell
me, the crow, the eaglehawk, and the bees were original totems, not
multiplex ones, as with us.
It may be as well for those interested in the marriage law puzzles to
state that Dinewans, Bohrahs, Douyous, and Doolungayers are always
Kumbo Hippi
Bootha Hippitha.
That Moodai, Gouyou, Beewee, Maira, Yubbah are always
Murree Kubbee
Matha Kubbootha.
Our blacks may and do eat their hereditary totems, if so desirous, with
no ill effects to themselves, either real or imaginary; their totem
names they take from their mothers. They may, in fact, in any way use
their totems, but never abuse them. A Beewee, for example, may kill, or
see another kill, and eat or use a Beewee, or one of its multiplex
totems, and show no sign of sorrow or anger, but should any one speak
evil of the Beewee, or of any of its multiplex totems, there will be a
quarrel.
There will likewise be a quarrel if any one dares to mimic a totem,
either by drawing one, except at Boorahs, or imitating it in any way.
There are members of the tribes, principally wizards, or men intended
to be such, who are given an individual totem called Yunbeai. This they
must never eat or they will die. Any injury to his yunbeai hurts the
man himself In danger he has the power to assume the shape of his
yunbeai, which of course is a great assistance to him, especially in
legendary lore; but, on the other hand, a yunbeai is almost a Heel of
Achilles to a wirreenun (see the chapter on Medicine and Magic).
Women are given a yunbeai too, sometimes. One girl had a yunbeai given
her as a child, and she was to be brought up as a witch, but she caught
rheumatic fever which left her with St. Vitus's dance. The yunbeai
during one of her bad attacks jumped out of her, and she lost her
chance of witchery. One old fellow told me once that when he was going
to a public-house he took a miniature form of his yunbeai, which was
the Kurrea--crocodile--out of himself and put it safety in a bottle of
water, in case by any chance he got drunk, and an enemy, knowing his
yunbeai, coaxed it away. I wanted to see that yunbeai in a bottle, but
never succeeded.
The differences between the hereditary totem or Dhe, inherited from the
mother, and the individual totem or yunbeai, acquired by chance, are
these: Food restrictions do not affect the totem, but marriage
restrictions do; the yunbeai has no marriage restrictions; a man having
an opossum for yunbeai may marry a woman having the same either as her
yunbeai or hereditary totem, other things being in order, but under no
circumstances must a yunbeai be eaten by its possessor.
The yunbeai is a sort of alter ego; a man's spirit is in his yunbeai,
and his yunbeai's spirit in him.
A Minggah, or spirit-haunted tree of an individual, usually chosen from
amongst a man's multiplex totems, is another source of danger to him,
as also a help.
As Mr. Canton says: 'What singular threads of superstition bind the
ends of the earth together! In an old German story a pair of lovers
about to part chose each a tree, and by the tree of the absent one was
the one left to know of his wellbeing or the reverse. In time his tree
died, and she, hearing no news of him, pined away, her tree withering
with her, and both dying at the same time.
Well, that is just what a wirreenun would believe about his Minggah.
These Minggah and Goomarh spirit trees and stones always make me think,
perhaps irrelevantly, of one of the restored sayings of the Lord, which
ends 'Raise the stone, and there thou shalt find Me; cleave the wood,
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 them.
A child may not perhaps know that it has had a yunbeai given to it, and
may eat of it in ignorance, when immediately they say that child
sickens.
Should a boy or a girl eat plains turkey or bustard eggs while they
were yet wunnarl, or taboo, he or she would lose his or her sight.
Should they eat the eggs or flesh of kangaroo or piggiebillah, their
skins would break out in sores and their limbs wither.
Even honey is wunnarl at times to all but the very old or very young.
Fish is wunnarl for about four years after his Boorah to a boy, and
about four months after she is wirreebeeun, or young woman, to a girl.
When the wunnarl was taken off a particular kind of meat, a wizard
poured some of the melted fat and inside blood of that animal or bird,
as the case might be, over the boy, and rubbed it into him. The boy,
shaking and shivering, made a spluttering noise with his lips; after
that he could eat of the hitherto forbidden food.
This did not necessarily refer to his totem, but any food wunnarl to
him, though it is possible that there may have been a time in tribal
history, now forgotten, when totems were wunnarl, and these ceremonies
may be all that is left to point to that time.
When a boy, after his first Boorah, killed his first emu, whether it
was his Dhe, or totem, or not, his father made him lie on the bird
before it was cooked. Afterwards a wirreenun (wizard) and the father
rubbed the fat on the boy's joints, and put apiece of the flesh in his
mouth. 'The boy chewed it, making a noise as he did so of fright and
disgust; finally he dropped the meat from his mouth, making a blowing
noise through his lips of 'Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!' After that he could eat the
flesh.
A girl, too, had to be rubbed with the fat and blood of anything from
which the wunnarl was to be removed for her. No ceremony of this sort
would be gone through with the flesh, fat, or blood of any one's
yunbeai, or individual familiar animal, for under no circumstances
would any one kill or eat their yunbeai.
Concerning the yunbeai, or animal familiar of the individual, conferred
by the medicine men, more is to be said in the ensuing chapters. The
yunbeai answers to the Manitu obtained by Red Indians during the fast
at puberty; to the 'Bush Soul' of West Africa; to the Nagual of South
American tribes; and to the Nyarong of Borneo. The yunbeai has hitherto
been scarcely remarked on among Australian tribes. Mr. Thomas declares
it to be 'almost non-existent' in Australia, mentioning as exceptions
its presence among the Euahlayi; the Wotjobaluk in Victoria; the
Yaraikkanna of Cape York; and 'probably' some of the northern tribes on
the other side of the Gulf of Carpentaria. [MAN (1904), No. 53, p. 85.]
Perhaps attention has not been directed to the animal familiar in
Australia, or perhaps it is really an infrequent thing among the
tribes.