The initiation ceremonies of the Burreba-burreba are the same in all essential respects as those of the Wiradyuri tribes, which I have described in detail elsewhere.[10] The social organisation is also similar to the Wiradyuri, comprising two phratries, each of which is subdivided into two sections, as exemplified in the following synopsis:—
Phratry. A man. Marries Sons and Daughters.
A Murri Ippatha Umbi and Butha.
Kubbi Butha Ippai and Ippatha.
B Ippai Matha Kubbi and Kubbitha.
Umbi Kubbitha Murri and Matha.
Although marriages generally follow the above rules, yet in certain cases Murri can marry Butha, and Kubbi may take Ippatha as his spouse— a similar liberty being allowed the men of phratry B. Again, where there is no objection arising from nearness of kin, a Murri man may marry a Matha woman, but her totem must be different from his, and she must belong to a distant family. This applies to the men of every section. By the strict letters of the foregoing table, it would appear that the child of a brother can marry the child of a sister, but this is rigorously forbidden—the table being construed to mean that a brother’s child’s child marries a sister’s child’s child.
Each phratry has attached to it a group of totems, consisting of animals and inanimate objects. Every man, woman, and child in the community has his particular totem, which is inherited from birth. For further information on this subject the reader is referred to numerous papers contributed by me to different scientific societies.
The Ngunawal Language.
The native tribes speaking the Ngunawal tongue occupy the country from
Goulburn to Yass and Burrowa, extending southerly to Lake George and
Goodradigbee.
In a contribution to the Anthropological Society at Washington in 1896, described the Bunan ceremony,[11] an elaborate type of initiation practised by the Ngunawal in common with other communities. In 1900 I published an account of the Kudsha[12] or Kuddya, an abridged form of inaugural ceremony which is likewise in force among the same people. The social organisation regulating marriage and descent, which I described in the last mentioned article,[13] also applies to the Ngunawal.
The Ngunawal is one of an aggregate of tribes whose sacred songs I have learnt and published, with the accompanying music, in an article I communicated to the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland in 1901.[14] These are the first sacred songs of the Australian Aborigines which have ever been set to music.
Nouns.
Number.—Nouns have three numbers. Mirri, a dog; mirribula, a couple of dogs; mirridyimma, several dogs.