PREFACE. 



A NUMBER of years ago there appeared in the cohimns of the Australasian 

 newspaper a short account of the language of one of the native tribes of the 

 Western District of Victoria, written by my daughter, whose long residence 

 in the Port Fairy district, and intimate acquaintance from infancy with the 

 aboriginal inhabitants of that part of the colony, and with their dialects, induced 

 her to publish that sketch. Some time afterwards our attention was directed 

 to the formation of a vocabulary of dialects spoken by aboriginal natives of 

 Australia, and a request was made that she ' would assist in collecting and 

 illustrating all connected with their history, habits, customs, and languages.' 

 In undertaking so interesting a work, our intention was to publish the 

 additional information in the columns of the Australasian; but, finding it 

 to be too voluminous for that journal, it was resolved to present it to the public 

 in its present shape. 



Great care has been taken in this work not to state anything on the 

 word of a white person ; and, in obtaining information from the aborigines, 

 suggestive or leading questions have been avoided as much as possible. The 

 natives, in their anxiety to please, are apt to coincide with the questioner, and 

 thus assist him in arriving at wrong conclusions ; hence it is of the utmost 

 importance to be able to converse freely with them in their own language. 

 This inspires them with confidence, and prompts them to state facts, and to 

 discard ideas and beliefs obtained from the white people, which in many 

 instances have led to misrepresentations. All the information contained in this 

 book has been obtained from the united testimony of several very intelligent 

 aborigines, and every word was approved of by them before being written down. 

 While co-operating in this arduous task, which they thoroughly comprehended, 

 our sable friends showed the utmost anxiety to impart information, and the most 

 scrupulous honesty in conveying a correct version of their own language, as well 



