Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/75

II companions of Burke in his march across the continent to the Gulf of Carpentaria and back to Cooper's Creek. Tribes of similar organisation occur up the course of the Barcoo at least as far as Mount Howitt, where the now extinct Kurnandaburi lived, about 120 miles from the Yantruwunta country, but I do not know how far such tribes extend into the western deserts beyond the Tangara, of whom I know little more than the name.

To the east and south-east of the Dieri country are the Grey and Barrier Ranges, which separate the tribes I have been speaking of from others, whom the Yantruwunta described to me as being so stupid that they "called a snake fire," the word for fire in the Yantruwunta language being Turo, which in the other tongue means carpet snake.

The tribes to the east of the Grey and Barrier Ranges form two nations, which with another, the Barkinji, on the opposite side of the Darling, occupy practically the whole of its course from the Barwon River to its junction with the Murray.

The two former nations are the Itchumundi and Karamundi, the first of which comprises the following tribes:—

(1) Wilya, occupying the country about the Grey Ranges, and having its headquarters about Endeavour Lake.

(2) Kongait, north and south of Cadell's Range, and having its headquarters at Cobham Lake.

(3) Tongaranka, the country including Momba, Tarella, Wonominta, Yandarle, and the Daubeny Range, and having its headquarters at Momba and Tarella. The name means a hillside.

(4) Bulalli, the Barrier Range country, having its headquarters at Polamacca and Sturt's Meadow. Bulalli is from bola, "a hill."

Some of the tribes forming the Karamundi nation are:—