“The inhabitants of the continent of Australia have long been a puzzle to ethnologists.” Thus wrote Sir W. H. Flower in his Essays on Museums.

Ethnologists seem to be approaching a close agreement on the origin of the Australians, and it is my hope that this volume, not only in the Inquiry, Chap. I., but also in other parts, will contribute to a fuller solution of the “puzzle.”

For over six consecutive years up to 1872 I lived in the country of the Kabi tribe and was in constant touch with Kabi and Wakka natives. Subsequently I was in occasional touch with them until 1876, when I removed to Melbourne. I renewed my acquaintance by a three months' visit in 1884, and in October 1906 I again visited the Kabi territory and interviewed natives.

Dr Howitt has written about these Kabi people under the name of Kaiabara. This is merely a local term by which only a few families claiming a small area as their common home would be known. Others have followed Dr Howitt in this misnomer. The people, constituted one tribe by community of language, and conscious of their unity, call themselves and their language Kabi.

Since writing my sketch of the Kabi tribe for Curr's The Australian Race, I have, through correspondence and by means of personal intercourse with aborigines, collected additional information, some of it of exceptional importance.