Polygamy, in Australia, is what we find and expect to find. The practice of circumcision is what we find, perhaps, without expecting it. The habit of the children taking the name of the mother, will occur again in the south of India. The rule that a man cannot marry a woman of his own family-name will also re-appear, and that amongst the Indians of North America. _The Kobong_[76]--"Each family among the Australians, adopts some animal or plant, as a kind of badge or armorial emblem, or, as they call it, its _kobong_. A certain mysterious connection exists between a family and its kobong, so that a member of the family will not kill an animal, or pluck any plant of the species to which his kobong belongs, except under particular circumstances. This institution again, which in some respect resembles the Polynesian _tabú_, though founded on a different principle, has its counterpart in the customs of the native Americans. Captain Gray observes, citing Mr. Gallatin, that among the Hurons,[77] the first tribe is that of the bear; the two others, those of the wolf and turtle. The Iroquois have the same divisions, and the turtle family is divided into the great and little turtle. The Sioux are named on a similar principle. According to Major Long, one part of the superstition of these savages, consists in each man having some totem, or favourite spirit, which he believes to watch over him. The _totem_ assumes the shape of some beast, and therefore they never kill or eat the animal whose form they suppose their totem to bear."