.

LAWS OF RELATIONSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND INHERITANCE.
RELATIONSHIP AND MARRIAGE.

DIVISION OF FAMILIES.
Traditional Laws of Relationship and Marriage.
One of the most remarkable facts connected with the natives is that they are divided into certain great families, all the members of which bear the same names, as a family, or second name: the principal branches of these families, so far as I have been able to ascertain, are the: Ballaroke Tdondarup Ngotak Nagarnook Nogonyuk Mongalung Narrangur.
But in different districts the members of these families give a local name to the one to which they belong, which is understood in that district to indicate some particular branch of the principal family.

The most common local names are: Didaroke Gwerrinjoke Maleoke Waddaroke Djekoke Kotejumeno Namyungo Yungaree.
These family names are common over a great portion of the continent; for instance, on the Western coast, in a tract of country extending between four and five hundred miles in latitude, members of all these families are found.

In South Australia I met a man who said that he belonged to one of them, and Captain Flinders mentions Yungaree as the name of a native in the gulf of Carpentaria.
LAW OF MARRIAGE.
These family names are perpetuated and spread through the country by the operation of two remarkable laws: 1.