211 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
respecting the tribes distributed between Jalakuru and the Gulf 
of Carpentaria. With the Yaako or Croker Island tribe, our 
acquaintance is of older date than with the others; the Raffles Bay 
settlement in 1827, was within their territory. These are de¬ 
scribed as most forbidding in appearance, and little better in 
disposition. Fear of the whites, however, secured their good 
behaviour. The Yarlo and Syi tribes resemble each other in 
general characteristics, though their dialects are totally dissimilar. 
They are a better looking people than the Croker Islanders, and from 
the beginning showed great partiality for the English. The Bijna- 
lumbo tribe possess a superior physical organization, and indeed 
Mr. Earl is inclined to think there has been some infusion of 
Polynesian blood among the aborigines of this part of Australia. 
Of the four dialects spoken by the tribes of the Cobourg Penin¬ 
sula, one only appears to differ from those spoken in other parts 
of New Holland, and this difference consists only in the words 
almost invariably ending in a vowel. This, however, seems only 
accidental. The consonants s and f are rejected throughout the 
Australian dialects, as is also the h aspirate. With the single 
exception mentioned above, two-thirds at least of the words end 
in a consonant, and often a double consonant, as “ alk,” “ irt,” 
&c. The nasal ng is very common. The natives of the coast, 
from frequent intercourse with the Macassar Trepang fishers, have 
picked up a good deal of their language, which is a dialect of the 
Polynesian ; and as they spoke in this patois to the English on 
their first arrival, these latter, from ignorance, made vocabularies 
of it, taking it for the native language of the tribes. From these 
considerations, Mr. Earl proceeds to treat of the great inland 
tribe, and enters into details which we cannot give here, of the 
origin and progress of our intercourse with them. This com¬ 
munity in the interior are much more numerous and better 
organized than the coast tribes. One great chief, dignified by 
the title of “ Rajah,” has controul over several large communities, 
each having its own chief. They live on the spontaneous produce 
of the country, which is abundant. They collect a wild grain, 
pound it between stones, and make it into cakes, which they bake 
in the ashes of their fires; this, with yams and the root of a nut, 
