Australian children are generally named after their mother’s clan; but this is not the case in every tribe.[538] Among the Gournditch-mara, Turra, Moncalon, Torndirrup, and some other tribes, the male line prevails.[539] With reference to the Narrinyeri, the Rev. G. Taplin states that a man’s children belong to his tribe (_i.e._ clan), and not to their mother’s; that property descends from father to son, and that, in case of a man dying without issue of his own, his possessions are always transmitted to the brother’s children.[540] Again, in the Dieyerie tribe of South Australia, the sons take the father’s clan, the daughters the mother’s.[541] Even where children are named after their mother, inheritance may go from father to son. Thus, among the West Australians, the hunting ground or landed property descends in the male line, though “children of either sex always take the family name of their mother.”[542]
Among the Todas, all children belong to the father’s family, and inheritance runs through males only.[543] The same is the case with most of the Indian Hill Tribes: either all the sons dividing their father’s property equally, as among the Gonds, Bodo, and Dhimáls; or the eldest son getting the largest share, as among the Kandhs, Karens, and Nagas; or the youngest born male being the only heir, as among the Hos; or the favourite son succeeding without reference to age, as among the Mishmis.[544] Among the Pahárias, too, sons inherit, and nephews by sisters get no share.[545] The law of succession among the Singphos gives to the eldest son all the landed property of the father, to the youngest all his personal property, while the rest inherit nothing.[546] Among the Santals, children belong to the father’s clan;[547] and the same is the case with the offspring of intermarriages of Lepchas and Limbus and Butias.[548] Touching the Karens, Dr. A. Bunker writes to me, “A child takes a name of its own, and of neither of the parents; but usually the father, being the stronger, takes the child in case of separation. It is regarded as belonging to both parents, so far as blood goes.” If we add to this that the male line prevails in Arabia,[549] Tibet,[550] throughout Russian Asia,[551] and among the Ainos,[552] it must be admitted that the system of “kinship through females only” is of very rare occurrence in Asia, being restricted, so far as I know, to a few parts of India, Ceylon, and the Malay Archipelago.[553]