n.

In many of these dialects there appears to be little more difference than
exists among the counties in England. Such is the case up the course of
the Murray from Lake Alexandrina to the Darling; and such Captain Grey
found to be the case throughout a great part of Western Australia. In
others the dialects are so totally unlike one another, that natives,
meeting upon opposite sides of a river, cannot speak to or understand a
word of what each other say, except through the medium of a third
language, namely that spoken by the natives of the river itself, and
which is totally unlike either of the other two.

This is the case at Moorunde, where three different dialects meet, the
Yakkumban, or dialect spoken by the Paritke tribe, or natives inhabiting
the scrub to the west and north-west of the Murray. The
Boraipar or language of the Arkatko tribe, who
inhabit the scrub to the east of the Murray, and the Aiawong or river
dialect, extending, with slight variations, from the junction of the
Murray and Lake Alexandrina to the Darling.

Chapter V.

CEREMONIES AND SUPERSTITIONS--FORMS OF BURIAL--MOURNING CUSTOMS--RELIGIOUS
IDEAS--EMPIRICS, ETC.

The ceremonies and superstitions of the natives are both numerous and
involved in much obscurity; indeed it is very questionable if any of them
are understood even by themselves. Almost all the tribes impose
initiatory rites upon the young, through which they must pass from one
stage of life to another, until admitted to the privileges and rights of
manhood. These observances differ greatly in different parts of the
continent, independently of local or distinctive variations indicative of
the tribe to which a native may belong.

Thus at the Gulf of Carpentaria, the rite of circumcision is performed;
at Swan River, King George's Sound, and nearly three hundred miles to the
eastward of the latter place, no such rite exists. Round the head of the
Great Australian Bight, and throughout the Port Lincoln Peninsula, not
only is this rite performed, but a still more extraordinary one conjoined
with it. [Note 78: "Finditur usque ad urethram a parte inferaa penis."]
Descending the east side of Spencer's and St. Vincent's Gulf, and
around the district of Adelaide, the simple rite of circumcision is
retained. Proceeding but a little farther to the banks of the Murray, and
its neighbourhood, no such ceremony exists, nor have I ever heard of its
having been observed any where on