care to study the ways of early men, ' the pit whence we were dug.' The
Euahlayi are a sympathetic people, and have found a sympathetic
chronicler.

A. LANG.





CHAPTER I



INTRODUCTORY


The following pages are intended as a contribution to the study of the
manners, customs, beliefs, and legends of the Aborigines of Australia.
The area of my observation is mainly limited to the region occupied by
the Euahlayi tribe of north-western New South Wales, who for twenty
years were my neighbours on the Narran River. I have been acquainted
since childhood with the natives, first in southern South Australia;
next on my father's station on the Darling River, where I was saved by
a native girl, when my sisters were drowned while bathing. I was
intimate with the dispositions of the blacks, and was on friendly terms
with them, before I began a regular attempt to inquire into their
folk-lore and customary laws, at my husband's station on the Narran,
due north of the Barwon River, the great affluent of the Murray River.