The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-04-18
WHOLE NO.. 281.

women Of the Kubbi men and the ka-
pOta women; of the Kumbo men and
the Buta women.
Nor is the reason for the interdict in
these cases far to seek. If the brothers
in given family are Ippai. the daugh
ters of that family are Ippata, and are
therefore in the correlated group If the
Tppai man should choose his wife from
the Ippata group of women, he might
choose his sister! And the like is true
Of all the other castles occupying the
same level. That is, if the male caste
be Murri, the man Of that caste must
not choose 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, aud the Kumbo man must not
choose from the female caste Of Buta.
1t happens for this reason {hat 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 Kumho men
and the Buta women--aro interdicted
The general law requires that the
man of the lppai must marry a 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 lppata woman, pro-
pidcd care be taken that she be not akin
to him. Otherwise every Ippaa must
avoid his own correlated group, pass by
the Mata group Of women and take a
/ 20 frp, lp
In the second place, the law requires
that the Murri man must take a Buta
woman. EIe is interdicted 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 lppata woman. This
I is also third caste remove, but, oddly
enough, III the inverse direction. The
inferior Kubbi reaches up two stages
and takes q superior lppata. The law
for the Kumbo is that he may marry
only Mata woman, and this again il i
third remove upward
This strange and elaborate system il
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 view to Sc
curing diversity also i'll 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 off 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 tOlrcr than the
father, and tho female children one
caste higher than the mother. When the
man Of the Ippai manies, as he may
marry, an lppata woman, the offspring
will be Kumbo if malo and Buta il 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. Tho priv
ilege of the Ippai man 10 marry into
the social caste On a level with his own
is, as it were, avenged or punished by
banishing his children to the remotest
extremes Of society.
If the Murri man marry Buta W0m
an Gas he must), the male children are
, Ippai, or one grade higher than tho ia
ther, and the female children are lppa-
ia, or three grades higher than the
mother
The children Of the kubb man and
the Ippata woman are, il 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 tho woman.
The children Of tho Kunbo 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. 1t is the
most scientific. That it should be the
work Of the most utterly savage people
on the face of the earth seems incredi-
BILE. 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 is 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 a single person.
In short time the whole tribe, under
: the action of these rules, becomes abso-
lutely unified.
!: Thus, for example, the male child
! born Ippai has for its father a Murri
man and for its mother Buta woman,
, but the Murri 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 ramifcations. 1t is
literally true that every Australian child