Let us briefly examine whether this general assumption contradicts any other features of Australian tribal life. If we consider their modes of procuring food, we find that the women had to go in search of roots, grubs, etc., in short do purely collecting work. It is obvious that this kind of work is never done well in big bands. On the other hand it is probable that one woman alone would be afraid to go on remote wanderings. The most favourable unit would be a group of two to three women with their children. The men hunted their game also in rather small groups. There do not seem to be any collective methods of hunting. The kangaroo was perhaps tired out by the common effort of several men. For the hunting of the smaller game, which was practically also a kind of searching, it would be rather unfavourable to go out in big parties. Considerations of an economic order, therefore, give no reason for discarding our assumption; on the contrary it is corroborated by them. To the question whether for security's sake the aborigines would not be compelled to aggregate, we must also return a negative answer. War was not the normal condition of the Australian blacks.[460] And I have not been able to find any statement of collective methods of organized defence. [460] Compare G. C. Wheeler, _loc. cit._, p. 161, and chap. ix. on War, pp. 148 _sqq._ To sum up our results in a few words: the territorial division points only exceptionally and problematically, even in these exceptional cases, to possession of land by single families. The territorial unit, called by us Local Group, although varying in its extent according to the locality, appears to consist usually of several families. But these families in their turn live usually either in one smaller group, numbering two or three families or, exceptionally, one only. In more fertile tracts, near big rivers and fertile coastal districts, the number of families living in permanent contact appears to be greater; in the extensive arid areas the number of families grouped together seems to be rather small. II