[2] Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia.


But the Australian philosophy of the intercommunion of Nature goes
still farther than this. Besides the local divisions and the
kindred stocks which trace their descent from animals, there exist
among many Australian tribes divisions of a kind still unexplained.
For example, every man of the Mount Gambier local tribe is by birth
either a Kumite or a Kroki. This classification applies to the
whole of the sensible universe. Thus smoke and honeysuckle trees
belong to the division Kumite, and are akin to the fishhawk stock
of men. On the other hand, the kangaroo, summer, autumn, the wind
and the shevak tree belong to the division Kroki, and are akin to
the black cockatoo stock of men. Any human member of the Kroki
division has thus for his brothers the sun, the wind, the kangaroo,
and the rest; while any man of the Kumite division and the crow
surname is the brother of the rain, the thunder, and the winter.
This extraordinary belief is not a mere idle fancy--it influences
conduct. "A man does not kill or use as food any of the animals of
the same subdivision (Kroki or Kumite) with himself, excepting when
hunger compels, and then they express sorrow for having to eat
their wingong (friends) or tumanang (their flesh). When using the
last word they touch their breasts, to indicate the close
relationship, meaning almost a portion of themselves. To
illustrate: One day one of the blacks killed a crow. Three or four
days afterwards a Boortwa (a man of the crow surname and stock),
named Larry, died. He had been ailing for some days, but the
killing of his wingong (totem) hastened his death."[1] Commenting
on this statement, Mr. Fison observes: "The South Australian savage