Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/181

176 aborigines to convey their thoughts or make their requirements known to each other.

From the Middle Darling River, in New South Wales, right through, to far beyond Cooper's Greek, and stretching thence to Lake Hope in South Australia, the natives all speak the same tongue, or nearly the same. At all events, over that portion of Central Australia the natives can readily understand each other without the intervention of Ngallow Wattows. We attribute this circumstance to the fact of that region being a very arid and dry one, having but few permanent waters in seasons of drought; so that all the native tribes of that inhospitable country are compelled during such seasons to assemble round these waters, there to dwell together, oftentimes for many months at a time; and doubtless, on occasions of excessive drought, for a year, or perhaps even longer than that. At such periods a general amity must perforce prevail amongst the tribes so assembled, otherwise total extermination would quickly ensue.

The fact of the tribes inhabiting so extensive an area of country, all speaking one tongue, induces us to imagine that the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia originally spread over the country from the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Carpentaria, breaking up into small sections such as families, so that food might be found for all, such breaking up taking place after getting well south to the country of rivers and creeks; then each section or family diverging to the right or left, as the fancy inclined them, thus forming the nuclei of the various tribes as found by the colonists.