LANGUAGES OF SOME TRIBES OF WESTERN 

 AUSTRALIA. 



By R. H. MATHEWS, L.S. 

 (Read December 6, 1907.) 



For the last eight years I have been endeavoring to obtain original 

 information respecting the sociology, language, folklore and customs 

 generally of the aborigines of Western Australia. Early in 1900 

 I had the matter sufficiently developed to publish the sociology of 

 the tribes on the sources of the Ord, Fitzroy and Margaret rivers in 

 the Kimberley district.^ Towards the end of the same year I pub- 

 lished a map showing the distribution of various tribes possessing 

 different types of sociology throughout nearly the whole of Western 

 Australia.^ 



In 1 901 I gave further details of the sociology as well as a vocabu- 

 lary of one hundred and eighteen words of the language spoken in 

 the Kimberley district.^ In 1903 I described some interesting rock 

 paintings and carvings, and supplied vocabularies of the languages 

 of the natives at Roebourne and on the Lower Fitzroy river.* Dur- 

 ing 1907 I further illustrated the sociology of the tribes between 

 Albany and Perth, and also that of the Erlistoun tribe.^ Some of 

 the folklore and customs of the aborigines of Western Australia are 

 now in course of publication by me elsewhere. 



In the present monograph I shall briefly deal with the language 

 of some tribes occupying the country approximately from Laverton 

 and Weld Spring eastward to the boundary of South Australia, and 

 extending into the territory of that state for about two hundred 

 miles. The total length of this tract of country may be stated as 

 approximately six hundred and fifty miles and its breadth three 

 hundred miles. Each tribe is treated under a separate heading. 



^American Anthropologist, N. S., pp. 185-187, 



^Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, Phila., xxxix, pp. 89, 123-125, 560-575, with 

 map. 



*Journ. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxxv, pp. 217-222. 

 * Queensland Geographical Journal, xix, pp. 45-72. 

 '^ Ibid., xxii, 1907. 



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