And the information in this little book, painstakingly compiled from the aboriginals themselves while many of the Kamilaroi were still in their wild state, was one of those lucky finds. It has helped me to relieve slightly the “straight-out” story of old Bungaree, confined as it mostly is to jealousies, raids, fears, hunting and fighting.

I have also been glad to refer, for reasons of clarity upon several subjects, to several short articles luckily preserved from the pens of two old-timers, W. A. Squires and Rev. C. C. Greenway.

Names of aboriginal characters mentioned are nearly all as given by Bungaree. Where he or Stan Ewing, who took down his story, missed out a name I have taken an appropriate name from Ridley’s vocabulary of the Kamilaroi, strictly, in so far as I was able, fitting the name to the character’s totem.

Some of the names given by Bungaree are those of Jerrabri, war chief of the Gunn-e-darr tribe, Red Kangaroo’s uncle Tulumi, the warriors Burradella, Boobuk, and Kuribri, Red Kangaroo’s friend Giluram, the boys Gilwanand, Tuki, the girls Weetah, Nareen, and Naroo, Kulki of the Coonabarabran tribe, Ilpara of the Goonoo Goonoo, Mooti of the Manellae, and Kibbi of the Bundarra.

The accounts of the strength of tribes and of their losses in raids and fights are as given by Bungaree. The losses given here will surprise many people. In our very incomplete knowledge of the aboriginal, a straight-out fight is believed to mean a shower of spears until a man is killed or wounded, when the fight is over. In general, this is correct. But before the whites came tribes here and there over the continent were again and again wiped out. The fighting and losses then must have been far more severe than has generally come to the latter knowledge of the whites. In his story I have given Bungaree’s own figures. All through his long narrative he was explicit in figures, to every man, woman, and child, and their ages, in a tribe. And his account of the various fightings and losses are exactly as he gave them to Sergeant Ewing and his son.

Red Kangaroo’s speech before the chief, Jerrabri, and the tribe complaining of the injustices of the chief and the council of the elders is practically as given in Bungaree’s own words, as also is his speech on his return with his captive girls, Naroo and Nareen. The capture and escape back to the tribe are told in Bungaree’s own words also. So is the duel with Jerrabri, and other duels.

The capture of women and the use of the strangling cord were according to custom, and are set down as Bungaree described them. The spying by the girl Weetah and her little brother, Tuki, on the enemy scouts and the fighting along the Porcupine Ridges and the Wallaby Trap also follow Bungaree’s account. The Red Chief’s address to the discontented guards and the instructions to the lads who were to creep to the Secret Camp are in Bungaree’s own words.