BY HERMANN B. RITZ, M.A. 



79 



maggerer Parlerdee Avaerang-gelly, timeiie 

 stops God sk_v, no 



merrydy, timene taggathe. 

 sick no hungering. 



The spelHng- is pecuHar, but the words can easily be 

 identified. The phraseology is that of a man who had 

 learnt to adapt his thoughts to those of his hearers. The 

 translation is so far inaccurate as it implies accidence 

 in the Tasmanian words, e.g., in speaks, sees. We note 

 that his word for God is Pallerdee, that is palla ritia, 

 powerful white-man ! The first word (matty, one), 

 is not in H. Ling Roth's list ; it is evidently the same 

 as matta — round like a ball, a pebble. If Robinson tried 

 to get the native word for " one." he would probably 

 take up a pebble to illustrate his meaning, and duly re- 

 ceive the information that it was matta, a pebble, which 

 he then would remember as the numeral " one," not 

 realising that the Aborigines had no proper numerals 

 at all. 



In Appendix D, H. Ling Roth gives some " Phrases 

 and Songs after Braim."" There is an English version 

 for the phrases, but it is not accurate ; there is none for 

 the songs. I will take phrase 5 as a specimen. Adopting 

 the uniform spelling and interlineating my own version, 

 based on H- Ling Roth's lists, we get: — 



Malangtena mena take mulaga. Puti nara 

 child stop me go hunt. Not there 



pamere lugana lika lugana krakane 

 one kangaroo like kangaroo exist 



kate kate, ludawine pallawana nara 

 many. White-man warrior there 



mokera nara mena lugana. Ritia teratittia 

 clog there me • kangaroo. Man white 



tape tialena nara lowe, relbia mena 

 go come there down violent act me 



malitiena mabile. Warrawe poietanate. 

 white many. Spirit distracted. 



H. Ling Roth quotes as the English version : — When 

 I returned to my country, I went hunting, but did not 

 kill one head of game. The white men make their dogs 

 wander and kill all the game, and they only want the 

 skins. 



