und a sympathetic
chronicler.

A. LANG.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

The following pages are intended as a contribution to the study of the
manners, customs, beliefs, and legends of the Aborigines of Australia.
The area of my observation is mainly limited to the region occupied by
the Euahlayi tribe of north-western New South Wales, who for twenty
years were my neighbours on the Narran River. I have been acquainted
since childhood with the natives, first in southern South Australia;
next on my father's station on the Darling River, where I was saved by
a native girl, when my sisters were drowned while bathing. I was
intimate with the dispositions of the blacks, and was on friendly terms
with them, before I began a regular attempt to inquire into their
folk-lore and customary laws, at my husband's station on the Narran,
due north of the Barwon River, the great affluent of the Murray River.

My tribe is a neighbour of that mentioned by Mr. Howitt as the
'Wollaroi,' 'Yualloroi,' or 'Yualaroi.' [Howitt, NATIVE TRIBES OF
SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 57, 467, 694, 769.] I spell the tribal name
'Euahlayi'; the accent is on the second syllable--'You-ahl-ayi'; and
the name is derived from the tribal word for the negative: EUAHL, or
YOUAL, 'No,' as in the case of the Kamilaroi (Kamil, 'No'), and many
other tribes.

Mr. Howitt regards these tribes as on the limits of what he calls the
'Four Sub-Class' system. The people, that is to say, have not only the
division into two 'phratries,' or 'exogamous moieties,' intermarrying,
but also the four 'Matrimonial Classes' further regulating marriage.
These classes bear the Kamilaroi names, of unknown meaning, Ipai, Kumbo,
Murri, and Kubbi; but the names of the two main divisions, or phratries,
are not those of the Kamilaroi--DILBI and KUPATHIN.

The Euahlayi language, or dialect, is not identical with that of the
great Kamilaroi tribe to their south-east, but is clearly allied with
it, many names of animals being the same in both tongues. A few names
of animals are shared with the Wir djuri speech, as MULLIAN, Eagle
Hawk; Pelican, GOOLAYYAHLEE (Wir djuri, GULAIGULI). The term for the
being called 'The All Father' by Mr. Howitt is also the term used by
the Wir djuri and Kamilaroi, 'Baiame' or 'Byamee.' The Euahlayi,
however, possess myths, beliefs, and usages not recorded as extant
among the Kamilaroi, but rather forming a link with the ideas of
peoples dwelling much further wes