Howitt to Fison 26 September 1878

Transcription - Page 2

to hope to work out all the Australian materials
excepy by digesting other men's labours. Each
'tribe' requires a separate investigation and when I
think that it has taken me 15 years of labour the little
I know of the inner life of the Kurni I despair!
I am curious to see what classification of the
various "groups" you propose. I told you I adopted
Family, division, clan, tribe. The term
race[underlined] has other meanings and might be made
to include all Australian tribes. The term people [underlined]
to my mind implies other ideas such as the
"Populus Romanus". I cannot think at the
moment of better terms. the clans [underlined] of the
Gaels were in the aggragate a tribe [underlined] all speaking
the same language, having [the - crossed out] a common descent;
the word nation [underlined] will not do either.

I have been much impressed by
seeing in the H. C.s book so many inaccuracies
- given of course on the authority of the informers -
who can check them? Only those who like
myself can see a little deeper, or know
a little more of the individual "clan"
than the informant. These statements
will be received as authenticated facts.