ABSTRACT
The people who are described in the following pages call themselves “Narrinyeri.” The name is evidently an abbreviation of Kornarrinyeri (from kornar, men, and inyeri, belonging to), and means “belonging to men.” They take great pride in this designation, and call other nations of Aborigines wild black-fellows, while they say, “we are men.” These Narrinyeri occupy a tract of country which would be included within lines drawn from Cape Jervis to a point about thirty miles above the place where the River Murray discharges itself into Lake Alexandrina, and from thence to Lacepede Bay. They are divided into eighteen tribes, and each is regarded by them as a family, every member of which is a blood relation, and therefore between individuals of the same tribe no marriage can take place. Every tribe has its ngaitye or tutelary genius or tribal symbol in the shape of some bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect or substance. The reader who is not sufficiently interested may skip the following names of the tribes1 of an obscure race of savages. Some, however, may like to know them, and for such I write them.
