The question then arises, Which, for the Veddas, is the older system, marrying-out or marrying-in?
Seeing what a miserable remnant the Veddas are, I cannot but believe that we have here the case of a formerly exogamous people, groups of which have been forced to marry-in, simply because the alternative was not to marry at all.

Of course, it is possible to argue that in so doing they merely reverted to what was once everywhere the primeval condition of man.

But at this point historical science tails off into mere guesswork.
* * * * * We reach relatively firm ground, on the other hand, when we pass on to consider the social organization of such exogamous and totemic peoples as the natives of Australia.

The only trouble here is that the subject is too vast and complicated to permit of a handling at once summary and simple.

Perhaps the most useful thing that can be done for the reader in a short space is to provide him with a few elementary distinctions, applying not only to the Australians, but more or less to totemic societies in general.