Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/79

II south to Jerilderie or Narandera on the east, to Moulamein on the south-east, and Dry Lake on the north-east.

With the exception of the Wiimbaio, whose name is taken from the word in their language Wiim, meaning "man," all the river tribes spoken of have been named from their language, or rather from their dialects, in which the negative is respectively Taat or Taath, Leitchi, Weki, Wathi, and so on, and reduplicated as their speech. This practice is common over a large part of Victoria, as for instance in the Wurunjerri tribe of the Yarra River, which, with other tribes, was commonly spoken of as the Woëworung, that is the "No-lip," hence "No speech."

Further up the River Murray on the Victorian side there was formerly a strong tribe called Bangerang, about which the works of Mr. E. M. Curr give some information. He had personal acquaintance in 1841 with the tribes which occupied the southern frontage of the Murray, from Echuca to Cobram, and up the course of its southern confluents the Campaspe, Goulburn, and Broken River for some distance. This comprised an area extending as far south as Toolamba, fifty miles from the Murray and about the same distance east and west. He enumerates ten different tribes each of which occupied a definite area of country, and were approximately 1200 in number. Of these tribes he says that "properly there was only one tribe named Bangerang, which consisted of two independent sections, the Wongatpan and Towroonban who, when speaking of themselves collectively always used the term Bangerang. But besides these there were eight other tribes in the area above referred to, which sometimes spoke of themselves, and were always spoken of by others, as Bangerang." South of this area he indicates the respective countries of other tribes, and he says that they spoke a language which differed from that of the Bangerang.

Properly speaking the river tribes, which, by the way, were confined to their respective sides of the river, were merely the local parts of a large organisation. Each one