Relations among Aboriginal tribes are sometimes hostile

The relations among Aboriginal tribes are sometimes hostile. While tribes throughout the Wollombi district are: “peaceful people, and too few in number to have fights on a grand scale…occasionally a few heads are broken with the coterie, or a spear wound inflicted in retaliation for some breach of their laws or customs. The rights of the chase are closely looked after, and any encroachment on each other’s boundaries on occasions [stir up] much hostile feelings betwixt the tribes. Sometimes the price of peace must be either a young gin, or opossum cloak”.