History

Archive for the ‘Australia Tribes’ Category

Daly River tribes best known  to us are the Cherites, the Ponga-pongas, the Mulluk-mulluks, and the Mat-ngelli. The Cherites, a small but intelligent tribe,  occupy the land between the sea and the river on its right bank. Opposite them, on the left bank, is a powerful tribe called Wogites, of whom we know very little. Next to the Wogites, o n the same bank,  come the Ponga-pongas, whose language is just the same as that of the Cherites.  Next to the Cher ites, on the right bank, are the Mulluk-mulluks. Their language differs from that of the Cherites, yet only as one Greek dialect differs from another. This brings us more than 60 miles up the river. The Mulluks are also on the opposite or left bank. But a few miles inland and to the west, begins the region of the Mat-ngelli, or Hermit-hill tribe. The Mat-ngelli have the Ponga-pongas on their north. Their language, although in structure and idiom very similar, differs much from that of the other tribes mentioned