The herald., 1896-04-23

ooAS ol tutse lduiiiy dIc 1ppatd, anu ilo
therefore in the correlated g-oup. If the
Ippai man should choose his wife from
the Ippata group of women, he might
choose his sister And the like is true
of all tho other castles occupying the
same level. That is, if the male caste
be Murri, the man of that caste must
not choose q Mata woman, for she
might have the same father and mother
as himself. The Kubbi man must not
marry Kapota woman for the same
reason, and the Kumbo man must not
choose from tho female caste of Buta.
1t happens for this reason that the two
upper castles, the Ippai men and Ippata
women. are Incompatible, and for the
same reason the Murri men and the
Marta women; the Kubbi men and the
Kapota women, and the Kumbo men
and the Buta women-are interdioted.
The general law requires that the
man Of the Ippai must marry Kapota
girl. that caste being the third grade
from his own. There is limited ex-
ception to this rule permitting an Ippai
man to marry an Ippata woman. pro-
utded care be taken that she be not akin
to him. Otherwise every Ippai must
avoid his own correlated group, pass by
the Mata group Of women and take o
wife from the Kapota group.
In the second place, the law requires
that the Murri man must take Buta
woman. He is interdioted from the
Mata women, who are nearest to him,
and must pass by the Kapota group and
go to the second class from his own be-
fore he can take. The man Of the Kub-
bi must marry an Ippata woman. This
is also third caste remove, but, oddly
enough, in the inverse direction. The
inferior Kubbi reaches up two stages
and takes a superior Ippata. The law
for the Kumbo is that he may marry
only Mata woman, and this again is q
third remove upward.
This strange and elaborate system is
carried into the offspring of the Austria
liam marriages. The results are very
complex, but at the same time system
ATTIC. The thing that seems to be aimed
at by the barbarians is to secure diver
sity in the marriage, with a view to Sc
curing diversity also In the offspring.
The evolution is kept up to the remotest
result. The law is that the children Of
the cross caste marriages (and all of the
marriages are of this kind) shall not be
Of the same caste with either Of the
parents. The offspring of the marriage
stands of from the caste Of both the IA
ther and the mother.
When an Ippai man marries Kapota
woman, the children are, If male, Murri,
and if female, Mata--that is, the male
children are one caste lolrer than the
father, and the female children one
caste higher than the mother. When the
man Of the Ippai marries, as he may
marry. an Ippata woman, the offspring
will be Kumbo If male and Buta if fe-
male-that is, the children, both male
and female, are in this exceptional in
stance thrown into castles as far as pos
sible from that Of the parents. The priv
ilege of the Ippai man to marry into
the social caste on level with his own
is, as 1t were, avenged or punished by
banishing his children to the remotest
extremes Of society.
If the Murri man marry Buta wom-
an (as he must), the male children are
Ippai, or one grade higher than the ia
ther, and the female children are Ippa-
ia, or thrae grades higher than the
mother.
The children Of the Kubbi man and
the Ippata woman are, if male, Kumbo,
and if female, Buta-that is, the male
children are one degree lower than the
father and the female children are
three degrees lower than the woman.
The children Of the Kumbo man and
the Mata woman are, if male, Kubbi,
and if female. Kapota-that is, the
male children are one degree higher than
the father and the female children one
degree loWer than the mother.
This is without doubt the most re-
markable system of marriage and de-
scent ever invented by man. It is the
most scientific. That it should be the
work Of the most utterly savage people
on the face Of the earth seems incredi-
ble How it was devised and what were
the instincts that led to the adoption Of
such rules Of sex relation are questions
beyond the ken Of history and almost
out Of reach of speculation. A few prin-
ciples, however, may be noted.
In these usages the existence Of a
strong desire or instinct among savages
for cross breeding and constant differ
entiation in manifested. There is also a
hint in it at the preservation Of tribal
solidarity. Caste exists within the tribe.
The general result Of the method of
sexual union here described is to dis
tribute the blood Of the tribe as if the
tribe were an entity or single person.
In short time the whole tribe, under
tho action of these rules, becomes abso-
lutely unified.
Thus, for example, the male child
born Ippai has for it's father Murri
man and for its mother Buta woman,
but the Mrrri father had for his parents
an Ippai father and Kapota mother.
There is thus combined in every grand
child the lines of four caste ancestry.
The principle extended soon embraces
all the tribe in its ramifications. 1t is
literally true that every Australian child
has in its veins the blood Of the whole
tribe, if not Of the whole race. IL is
worth the study Of a philosopher to ana
lyze such a system, to discover its origin
in savage instincts, and to trace out its
results on the barbarians who invented
" Drr~r,