R. H. Mathews

Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria

A REVIEW of the above work appeared in NATURE of May 31, 1906 (vol. lxxiv., p. 100), to which I wish to reply briefly. The review opens by saying that my works “have either been ignored or dismissed in a footnote by experts such as Dr. Howitt and Prof. Spencer.” Whilst the reviewer was quite aware of the obscure. “footnote,” he was quite silent regarding my reply to it, dated June 27, 1905. The opinions of the two men named do not perturb me, but when such an injurious statement appears in the “thunderer” of scientific journalism, I crave fair play and the right of reply.

Australian Folk - Tales

The first of the following tales was told to me by an old blackfellow whom the white people called ‘Jerry’. He spoke the Jirringañ language, a grammar of which I published in 1902,1 with the habitat of the Jirringañ tribe. The story of the Wahwee is current among the Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi, Wailwan, and other tribes of New South Wales. It was related to me by an old Kamilaroi black-fellow, named ‘Jimmy Nerang’, whom I met at the Bora ceremony held at Tallwood in 1895.2 The Rev. Wm. Ridley mentions the Wawi (my Wahwee) as a monster living in deep waterholes.3 I gave a drawing of the Wahwee represented on the ground at the Burbung ceremonies of the Wiradjuri tribe in 1893.4 (The two tales have, since their dispatch to Folk-Lore, been printed in the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales.)