NOTES ON SOME NATIVE DIALECTS OF VICTORIA. 253 
Past I struck Ngutthabenga nyinnin 
Future Ishall strike, Nguttha nyinniak 
In the past and future tenses of the verbs in all the dia- 
lects treated in this article, there are forms to indicate 
that the act described was done in the immediate, recent, 
or remote past; or that the act will be performed in the 
proximate or more or less distant future; that there was, 
or will be, a continuance of the action, and many other 
modifications which will not now be touched upon. 
The grammatical functions of the prepositions, adverbs 
and exclamations of the Yabula-yabula are so similar to 
those of other languages in that locality already reported 
by me, that they will at present be passed over. 
CONCLUSION. 
Victoria is the only Australian State of which it can be 
said that no grammar of the languages of its native inhabi- 
tants had ever been published, until my ‘“‘Aboriginal Lan- 
guages of Victoria’’ appeared last year.’ Chiefly through 
the medium of this Journal, and also by the kind support 
of other societies, I have now recorded and published for 
the first time, the elements of the grammar of sixteen of 
the native dialects of Victoria, which have been selected 
from different districts throughout that State, for the pur- 
pose of being representative of the speech of every tribe. 
It may therefore be said that, practically, Ihave dealt with 
the constitution of all the aboriginal tongues of Victoria. 
The whole of this work has been the result of my own 
individual investigations, every word in the grammars and 
in the vocabularies having been noted down by me person- 
ally from the lips of the native speakers. 
The social organization, illustrating the intermarrying 
divisions of the community, and also several highly inter- 
esting ceremonies of initiation among Victorian tribes, 
as well as many native customs, have been fully described 
by me in other publications. 
* Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. xxxvi., pp. 70 - 106. 
