254 R. H. MATHEWS. 



pages of this article that the communities composing this nation 

 practised three types of initiation. This was due to their incorpor- 

 ating portions of the ritual of their neighbours into their own, 

 which is particularly noticeable among the small tribes on the 

 Murray and Lower Darling, who have adopted the hair plucking 

 ceremony from the adjoining Narrinyeri nation. Among the 

 tribes about Swan Hill, Moulamein, Balranald, and the junction 

 of the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers, during an assemblage 

 for initiatory purposes, there was always a large proportion of the 

 Wiradjuri people present, in consequence of which there was an 

 overlapping or intermingling of the customs of both communities 

 in that district. 



Nos. 2 and 3 are the Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri nations respec- 

 tively, who adjoin the eastern boundary of the Barkunjee through- 

 out its whole length. 



No. 4 shows the north-west corner of the Bangarang community 

 who occupied Central Victoria from the Murray River to Port 

 Phillip. The Wiradjuri nation, No. 3, adjoins them on the north, 

 along the valley of the Murray, but evidences of the Wiradjuri 

 Burbung are observable for as much as fifty miles within the 

 Victorian frontier. 



No. 5 represents the northern extremity of what I have desig- 

 nated the Booandik nation, after the tribe of that name at Mount 

 Gambier, whose organisation is identical. The group divisions 

 throughout this community are known as Krokitch and Kamatch, 

 the feminine forms of the names being Krokitchgor and Kamatch- 

 gor. If a man belong to the Krokitch group, his wife must be 

 taken from among the Kamatch people, and vice versa, the children 

 taking invariably the appellation of the group to which their 

 mother belongs. 



The natives of the Murray River, from Euston to above Swan 

 Hill used to meet and mingle with those inhabiting the Avoca, 

 Avon, and Wimmera Rivers. 1 I have found that in consequence 

 of this intercourse of the tribes, the ceremonies of initiation com- 



1 Aborigines of Victoria, i., 38. 



