Volume II Part 18 (2/2)

The origin of these family names is attributed by the natives to different causes, but I think that enough is not yet known on the subject to enable us to form an accurate opinion on this point. One origin frequently a.s.signed by the natives is that they were derived from some vegetable or animal being very common in the district which the family inhabited, and that hence the name of this animal or vegetable became applied to the family. I have in my published vocabulary of the native language, under each family name, given its derivations as far as I could collect them from the statements of the natives.

But as each family adopts some animal or vegetable as their crest or sign, or Kobong, as they call it, I imagine it more likely that these have been named after the families than that the families have been named after them.

SECOND COINCIDENCE.

A certain mysterious connection exists between a family and its kobong, so that a member of the family will never kill an animal of the species to which his kobong belongs, should he find it asleep; indeed he always kills it reluctantly, and never without affording it a chance to escape.

This arises from the family belief that some one individual of the species is their nearest friend, to kill whom would be a great crime, and to be carefully avoided. Similarly a native who has a vegetable for his kobong may not gather it under certain circ.u.mstances and at a particular period of the year. The North American Indians have this same custom of taking some animal as their sign. Thus it is stated in the Archaeologia Americana:* ”Each tribe has the name of some animal. Among the Hurons the first tribe is that of the bear; the two others of the wolf and turtle.

The Iroquois nation has the same divisions, only the turtle family is divided into two, the great and the little.” And again, in speaking of the Sioux tribes:** ”Each of these derives its name from some animal, part of an animal, or other substance which is considered as the peculiar sacred object or medicine, as the Canadians call it, of each band respectively.” To this we may add the testimony of John Long, who says,*** ”one part of the religious superst.i.tion of the savages consists in each of them having his totem, or favourite spirit, which he believes watches over him. This totem they conceive a.s.sumes the shape of some beast or other, and therefore they never kill, hunt, or eat the animal whose form they think the totem bears.”

(*Footnote. Volume 2 page 109 quoting from Charlevoix volume 3 page 266.)

(**Footnote. Ibid page 110 quoting from Major Long's Exp. volume 1 chapter 15.)

(***Footnote. Voyages and Travels page 86.)

Civilized nations, in their heraldic bearings, preserve traces of the same custom.

BETROTHMENTS AND MARRIAGES.

Female children are always betrothed within a few days after their birth; and from the moment they are betrothed the parents cease to have any control over the future settlement of their child. Should the first husband die before the girl has attained the years of p.u.b.erty she then belongs to his heir.

A girl lives with her husband at any age she pleases, no control whatever is in this way placed upon her inclinations.

WIDOWS.

When a native dies his brother inherits his wives and children, but his brother must be of the same family name as himself. The widow goes to her second husband's hut three days after the death of her first.

The old men manage to keep the females a good deal amongst themselves, giving their daughters to one another, and the more female children they have the greater chance have they of getting another wife by this sort of exchange; but the women have generally some favourite amongst the young men, always looking forward to be his wife at the death of her husband.

OBLIGATIONS OF RELATIONs.h.i.+P. DIVISION OF FAMILY BRANCHES.

But a most remarkable law is that which obliges families connected by blood upon the female side to join for the purpose of defence and avenging crimes; and as the father marries several wives, and very often all of different families, his children are repeatedly all divided amongst themselves; no common bond of union exists between them, and this custom alone would be sufficient to prevent this people ever emerging from the savage state.

As their laws are princ.i.p.ally made up of sets of obligations due from members of the same great family towards one another--which obligations of family names are much stronger than those of blood--it is evident that a vast influence upon the manners and state of this people must be brought about by this arrangement into cla.s.ses. I therefore devoted a great portion of my attention to this point, but the ma.s.s of materials I have collected is so large that it would occupy much more time to arrange it than I have been able to spare so as to do full justice to the subject; but in order to give an accurate idea of the nature of the enquiries I pursued I have given in the Appendix A a short genealogical list which will show the manner in which a native gives birth to a progeny of a totally different family name to himself; so that a district of country never remains for two successive generations in the same family. These observations, as well as others made with regard to the natives, can be only considered to apply, as yet, to that portion of Western Australia lying between the 30th and 35th parallels of south lat.i.tude unless the contrary is expressly stated; though I think there is strong reason to suppose that they will, in general, be found to obtain throughout the continent.

DIFFICULTY OF PURSUING THE ENQUIRY.

It is impossible for any person not well acquainted with the language of the natives and who does not possess great personal influence over them to pursue an inquiry of this nature; for one of the customs most rigidly observed and enforced amongst them is never to mention the name of a deceased person, male or female. In an inquiry therefore which princ.i.p.ally turns upon the names of their ancestors this prejudice must be every moment violated, and a very great difficulty has thus to be encountered in the outset. The only circ.u.mstance which at all enabled me to overcome this was that the longer a person has been dead the less repugnance do they evince in uttering his name. I therefore in the first instance endeavoured to ascertain only the oldest names on record; and on subsequent occasions, when I found a native alone and in a loquacious humour, I succeeded in filling up some of the blanks. Occasionally round their fires at night I managed to involve them in disputes regarding their ancestors, and on these occasions gleaned much of the information of which I was in want.

LAWS OF LANDED PROPERTY. RIGHTS AND BOUNDARIES. PROPERTY VESTED IN INDIVIDUALS.

Traditional Laws relative to Landed Property.

Landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several families, but to a single male; and the limits of his property are so accurately defined that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out the various objects which mark his boundary. I cannot establish the fact and the universality of this inst.i.tution better than by the following letter addressed by Dr. Lang, the Princ.i.p.al of Sydney College, New South Wales, to Dr. Hodgkin, the zealous advocate of the Aboriginal Races:*

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