of Van Diemen’s Land . 
411 
that language is to their own ; they cannot, however, pronounce 
the hard letters, as d and s; doctor, they pronounce togata, or 
tokata; sugar, tugana; tea, teana. 
Their language is, in all probability, extremely limited, or at 
least was so before their intercourse with whites, but so many 
words have since crept in, and been naturalized as above, that it 
would now be impossible to find out to what their original lan¬ 
guage was confined : I much doubt their ever having separate 
names for all the different kinds of birds with which they were con ¬ 
versant ; u yula” (a bird) appeared to answer for most. The 
lingua franca before alluded to as spoken at Flinders' Island, is 
a mixture of English, words from the different tribes, and a 
number of words from the New Holland tribes, and even from 
other countries; these last have been introduced by the women, 
aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, who have lived for many years 
with sealers, and been with them to the continent; even negro 
words have been introduced. From these circumstances it may 
be perceived, how difficult it would be to separate their absolutely 
primitive language from that now in use. 
The following is a song of the Ben Lomond tribe; I cannot 
translate it, nor, could I do so, is the subject very select 
Ne popila raina pogana, 
Ne popila raina pogana, 
Ne popila raina pogana. 
Thu me gunnea, 
Thu me gunnea, 
Thu me gunnea. 
Thoga me gunnea, 
Thoga me gunnea, 
Thoga me gunnea. 
Naina thaipa raina pogana, 
Naina thaipa raina pogana, 
Naina thaipa raina pogana. 
Naara paara powella paara, 
Naara paara powella paara, 
Naara paara powella paara. 
Ballahoo, Ballahoo, 
Hoo, hoo! 
(Their war-whoop, very gutteral.) 
2 g 2 
