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