In habit they are truly nomadic, seldom remaining many weeks in one locality, and frequently not many days.  The number travelling together depends, in a great measure, upon the period of the year, and the description of food that may be in season.  If there is any particular variety more abundant than another, or procurable only in certain localities, the whole tribe generally congregate to partake of it.  Should this not be the case, then they are probably scattered over their district in detached groups, or separate families.

At certain seasons of the year, usually in the spring or summer, when food is most abundant, several tribes meet together in each other’s territory for the purpose of festivity or war, or to barter and exchange such food, clothing, implements, weapons, or other commodities as they respectively possess; or to assist in the initiatory ceremonies by which young persons enter into the different grades of distinction amongst them.  The manner and formalities of meeting depend upon the cause for which they assemble.  If the tribes have been long apart, many deaths may have occurred in the interim; and as the natives do not often admit that the young or the strong can die from natural causes, they ascribe the event to the agency of sorcery, employed by individuals of neighbouring tribes.  This must of course be expiated in some way when they meet, but the satisfaction required is regulated by the desire of the injured tribe to preserve amicable relations with the other, or the reverse.

The following is an account of a meeting which I witnessed, between the natives of Moorunde (comprising portions of several of the neighbouring tribes) and the Nar-wij-jerook, or Lake Bonney tribe, accompanied also by many of their friends.  This meeting had been pre-arranged, as meetings of large bodies of natives never take place accidentally, for even when a distant tribe approaches the territory of another unexpectedly, messengers are always sent on in advance, to give the necessary warning.  The object of the meeting in question was to perform the initiatory ceremonies upon a number of young men belonging to both of the tribes.  In the Murray district, when one tribe desires another to come from a distance to perform these ceremonies, young men are sent off with messages of invitation, carrying with them as their credentials, long narrow news, made of string manufactured from the rush.  These nets are left with the tribe they are sent to, and brought back again when the invitation is responded to.

Notice having been given on the previous evening to the Moorunde natives of the approach of the Nar-wij-jerook tribe, they assembled at an early hour after sunrise, in as clear and open a place as they could find.  Here they sat down in a long row to await the coming of their friends.  The men were painted, and carried their weapons, as if for war.  The women and children were in detached groups, a little behind them, or on