AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 



to Woolsthorpe, to Ballangeich, up Huston's Creek to Buirwidgee, through the 

 centre of MirrtewuES swamp to Goodwood House, thence to Buunbatt, and to 

 starting point. 



The Port Fairy tribe is called ' Peek whuurong,' and a member of it ' Peek 

 whurrong kuurndit.' Its language, ' Peek whurrong,' ' kelp lip,' is taken from 

 the broad-leafed seaweed so very abundant on the sea shore. Its territory lies 

 along the sea coast, from the mouth of the Hopkins River to nearly half-way 

 between Port Fairy and Portland, thence to Dunmore dam, Tarrone swamp, 

 Kirkstall, Koroit, Woodford, Allansford, Framlingham, and down the Hopkins 

 River to the sea. 



The Mount Shadwell tribe and its language are called ' Kirrte wuurong,' 

 'blood lip,' with Kuurndit affixed for a member of the tribe. Its territory 

 commences at the Hopkins Hill sheepwash on the Hopkins River, and extends to 

 Mount Fyans, Mount Elephant, Cloven Hills, Minninguurt, Mount Noorat, 

 Keilambete Lake, Framlingham aboriginal station, and up the east side of the 

 Hopkins River to starting point. 



The Camperdown language is called ' Warn talliin,' ' rough language.' The 

 Colac language is ' Kolak gnat,' ' belonging to sand,' and is hard in pronunciation. 

 The Cape Otway language is ' Katubanuut,' • King Parrot language.' The country 

 between Cape Otway and the Hopkins River is called ' Yarro wajtch,' ' Forest 

 country,' and the language ' Wirngill gnatt tallinanong,' ' Bear language.' 



At the annual great meetings of the associated tribes, where sometimes 

 twenty tribes assembled, there were usually four languages spoken, so distinct 

 from one another that the young people speaking one of them could not 

 understand a word of the other three; and even the middle-aged people had 

 difficulty in ascertaining what was said. These were the Chaap wuurong, Kuurn 

 kopan noot, Wiitya whuurong, and Kolac gnat. The other tongues spoken at the 

 meeting might be termed dialects of these four languages. 



The aborigines have a very ready way of distinguishing the ten dialects 

 enumerated above, by the various terms which are employed by each to denote the 

 pronoun ' you,' as Gnuutok, Gnuundook, Winna, Gnee, Gnii, &c. The diffijrences 

 of language are also marked by peculiarities of pronunciation, especially by the 

 way in which the end of a sentence is intoned. Natives of Great Britain will 

 remember similar differences between the various counties or towns of their 

 fatherland, which will serve to illustrate the differences of aboriginal 

 pronunciation. 



