NOTES ON THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES
(By R. H. Mathews, L.S., Associé étranger de la Societé d'Anthropologie de Paris.)
The problem of the first peopling of Australia cannot be discussed in a brief pamphlet such as this; but it may be said in passing that there appears to be nothing improbable in the assumption that the native inhabitants had an independent development in Northern Australia, or at any rate in the tropical regions between the present limits of the continent and Southern Asia, the intervening space having since been partially submerged. When we closely inquire into their customs, the common origin of all Australian tribes becomes evident.
This pamphlet contains some brief notes on a few of the most important customs of the aborigines of New South Wales, arranged under the following heads:—
- Sociology of the Ngēumba Tribe.
- The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribes.
- Aboriginal Weapons, &c.
- Aboriginal Rock Paintings.
- Aboriginal Rock Carvings.
- The Yaroma: a Legend.
- Pirrimbir, or Avenging Expedition.
- Bull-roarers used by the Aborigines.
- Aboriginal Songs at Initiation Ceremonies.
- Some Curious Beliefs.
- The Aboriginal Fisheries at Brewarrina.
All the above divisions of the subject have been much condensed from comprehensive articles contributed by me to the Royal Society of New South Wales, the Geographical Society of Queensland, the Royal Society of Victoria, the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, and the Victoria Institute, London. The complete treatises from which the above abridgments have been made, as well as many other articles dealing with all the customs of the Australian aborigines, may be obtained from the author.
1. Sociology of the Ngēumba Tribe.
The Ngēumba speaking people formerly occupied the country from Brewarrina on the Darling River southerly up the Bogan almost to Nyngan. They stretched thence westerly beyond Cobar and Byrock, including also the upper portions of Mulga Creek and surrounding country. I shall here supply an abridged account of their social organisation, which was first published in my "Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria."[1]
The community is divided into two primary cycles, called Ngurrawun and Mūmbun, with their feminine equivalents Ngurrawunga and Mūmbunga. The Ngurrawun cycle is again divided into two sections, called Ippai and Kumbo, and the Mūmbun cycle into two, called Kubbi
- ↑ Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, xxxviii, 203-381.
