III
SOCIAL ORGANISATION
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tively Bunjil and Waang were scattered over the tribal country in the same manner as, for instance, the Krokitch and Gamutch people of the Wotjo nation. In the southern tribes, however, such as the Wurunjerri and the Bunurong, the Bunjil and Waang people were segregated into separate localities. In this they resembled the Narrang-ga and the Narrinyeri, and the following table shows their respective distribution.
I am not able to indicate how much farther north this peculiar localisation of the social organisation extended, the intermediate tribes being extinct.
Name and Locality of Tribe. | Class Name. | Language | |
1. | Wurunjerri-baluk Yarra River watershed | Waang crow | Woëworung. |
2. | Gunung-willam-baluk The western end of Mount Macedon, extending to Bullengarook | do. | do. |
3. | Kurung-jang-baluk Werribee River | do. | do. |
4. | Ngaruk-willam South side of Dandenong Mountains | do. | do. |
5. | Buluk-willam About Cranbourne | do. | do. |
6. | Bunurong coast From Werribee River to Anderson's Inlet, and inland to south boundaries of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. | Bunjil | Bunurong. |
The Bunurong tribe is mentioned by the name of its language, and those numbered 1 to 5 might also be all grouped together as Woëworung. The Bunurong certainly consisted of a number of tribes speaking that language. But the view might be justified that there are here merely two tribes, and that 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, might be looked upon as clans of the Woëworung-speaking tribe.
The Wurunjerri class system is clearly a modification of such a one as that of the Murray River tribes, or the Wolgal or Ngarigo, or perhaps it would be better expressed if I were to say that it is a survival of such a system. The single totem Thara is a survival, and the legends seem to bear witness of the others. They relate the doings of super-