13 



The Narrinyeri Tribe. ( 4 ) 



As this tribe has been mentioned in connection with 

 the remains found at Swanport and will be further noticed 

 it may be convenient to give some particulars as to its 

 geographical distribution. 



According to Mr. Taplin (1, 1 and 2, 34) this tribe in- 

 habited a large, triangular tract of country bounded on two 

 sides by lines drawn from a point 20 miles above Wellington 

 to Cape Jervis and Kingston respectively, and on the third 

 side by the sea. Having thus an immense frontage to the 

 fresih waters of the river and lakes and to the salt waters of 

 the ocean and Coorong, they were exceptionally well favoured 

 in the matter of food supplies. As Swanport is, in a direct 

 line, about 15 miles above Wellington it stands nearly at the 

 northern apex of the Narrinyeri territory. The tribe was 

 divided into eighteen local divisions or clans, each having its 

 own geographical distribution, and, collectively, they formed a 

 powerful body whose numbers, in 1840, Mr. Taplin reckoned 

 at 3,000 individuals, though he gives no grounds on which 

 his estimate is based. The many camping- and burial- 

 grounds that are found all along the shores of the lakes and 

 river are, however, quite indicative of a numerous population. 



On the north, east, and south their neighbours were the 

 Moorundie, Adelaide, and Tatiara tribes respectively. , 



The Narrinyeri have some historical interest, as it was 

 members of this tribe who were concerned with the death of 

 Captain Barker at the Murray Mouth in 1831, and with the 

 murder of the shipwrecked passengers and crew of the 

 "Maria" at Lacepede Bay in 1840. It is the remnants of this 

 once numerous tribe, now chiefly half-castes, that form the 

 population of the Point Macleay Mission Station, or that 

 lead a nomadic existence along the lake and river shores. 

 A few have a more or less permanent camp at Brinkley below 

 Wellington, on the left bank of the Murray just before it 

 enters the lake. 



(4) Though the word Narrinyeri is, according to general cus- 

 tom used here as a tribal designation it really has not this 

 significance, as Mr. Taplin has explained (1, 1). According to 

 this writer the term properly signifies "belonging to men," mean- 

 ing that this people considered themselves par excellence as men 

 in contradistinction to other natives whom the Narrinyeri con- 

 sidered as inferior beings. 



An old blackwoman, to whom further reference will be made, 

 implied that the term signified the native race generally, and she 

 spoke of the subdivisions of the Narrinyeri as separate tribes, 

 but she could hardly be considered as an authority on ethnological 

 terminology. 



