Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/61

 LOSS OF THE MARIA. 3 The history of these Aborigines is involved in obscurity.* Their traditions make it seem probable that they came down the Murray and Darling Rivers to reach their present place of abode. The only event which they relate as occurring before the coming of the white people is the prevalence of a terrible epidemic which came down the Murray some fifty or sixty years ago and greatly thinned their numbers. I know several men who remember the arrival of Captain Sturt; and they tell of the terror which was felt as they beheld his boat crossing the Lake Alexandrina. A memorable occurrence was the appearance of a couple of stray bullocks, from some runs in New South Wales probably. They were first seen in the neighbourhood of Lake Albert, The natives concluded they were brupar (or demons), and decamped from their presence in great terror. They named them wunda-wityerithat is, beings with spears on their heads; and they have called horned cattle by the same name ever since. The Narrinyeri at the mouth of the Murray were probably the cause of the death of Captain Barker, the discoverer of the plains of Adelaide. He incautiously left his party on one side of the river and swam to the other; he was never after seen or heard of. In the year 1840 a vessel called the Maria was wrecked at Lacepede Bay. The crew and passengers escaped to the shore, probable that the country around the Lakes was originally occupied by a tribe of Aborigines who, they say, were under the Chiefs Waiungare and Neppelli. Nurundere appears to have led a tribe down the Darling and Murray, and, on his arrival, finding the country already in the possession of the before-mentioned tribe, he united his people with them and gained an ascendancy over the whole. An intelligent native told me that before his timehe is a man between forty and fiftythe following circumstances occurred: "Some time agohow long, it is impossible so discovertwo men of the clan called Piltinyerar, who live near Wellington, on the Lower Murray, went away into the scrub to the north-east kangaroo hunting, and did not return. Many years after, the natives felt a desire to find out what had become of them; so a number of hunters, under a leader named Pilpe, started off to search the desert for some indications of the fate of their missing countrymen. They travelled a great distance into the wilds, exploring as they went, and making signals which they knew would be understood by those whom they sought. At last, after making a kowandie or signal fire, they saw an answering smoke to the north-east, and hastening in that direction,
 * Judging from the traditions current amongst the old natives, it is very