Chapter 2 of 5 · 5220 words · ~26 min read

part 3

, I. iv. 135, the word more clearly designates the East:

"Thou art as opposite to every good As the Antipodes are unto us, Or as the South to the Septentrion." [sc. the North.]

But more precise geographical indications are given in `Much Ado,' II. i. 273, where Benedick is so anxious to avoid Beatrice that he says--

"I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John's foot; fetch you a hair of the great Kam's beard; do you any embassage to the Pygmies rather than hold three words conference with this harpy."

Now the Pygmies lived on the Upper Nile, near Khartoum, Prester John in India, and the great Kam (Khan) in Tartary.

The word Antipodes in modern use is applied rather to places than to people. Geographically, the word means a place exactly opposite on the surface of the globe, as Antipodes Island (Eastward of New Zealand), which is very near the opposite end of the diameter of the globe passing through London. But the word is often used in a wider sense, and the whole of Australasia is regarded as the Antipodes of Great Britain.

The question is often asked whether there is any singular to the word Antipodes, and `O.E.D.' shows that antipode is still used in the sense of the exact opposite of a person. Antipod is also used, especially playfully. The adjectives used are Antipodal and Antipodean.

1640. Richard Brome [Title]:

"The Antipodes; comedy in verse." [Acted in 1638, first printed 4t0. 1640.]

<hw>Ant-orchis</hw>, n. an Australian and Tasmanian orchid, Chiloglottis gunnii, Lind.

<hw>Apple</hw> and <hw>Apple-tree</hw>, n. and adj. The names are applied to various indigenous trees, in some cases from a supposed resemblance to the English fruit, in others to the foliage of the English tree. The varieties are--

Black or Brush Apple-- Achras australis, R. Br.

Emu A.-- Owenia acidula, F. v. M.; called also Native Nectarine and Native Quince. Petalostigma quadriloculare, F. v. M.; called also Crab-tree, Native Quince, Quinine-tree (q.v.)

Kangaroo A.-- See Kangaroo Apple.

Mooley A. (West N.S.W. name)-- Owenia acidula, F. v. M.

Mulga A.-- The Galls of Acacia aneura, F. v. M.

Oak A.-- Cones of Casuarina stricta, Ait.

Rose A.-- Owenia cerasifera, F. v. M.

1820. John Oxley, `Journal of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales,' p. 187:

"The blue gum trees in the neighbourhood were extremely fine, whilst that species of Eucalyptus, which is vulgarly called the apple-tree . . . again made its appearance. . . ."

1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 260:

"It builds its nest of sticks lined with grass in Iron-bark and Apple-trees (a species of Angophora)."

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 200:

"The apple-trees resemble the English apple only in leaf."

1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 195:

"In looking down upon the rich flats below, adjoining the stream, I was perpetually reminded of a thriving and rich apple-orchard. The resemblance of what are called apple-trees in Australia to those of the same name at home is so striking at a distance in these situations, that the comparison could not be avoided, although the former bear no fruit, and do not even belong to the same species."

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 52:

"I have heard of men employed in felling whole apple-trees (Angophera lanceolata) for the sheep."

1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. 132;

"Red Apple, Quonui, affects salt grounds."

1847. J. D. Lang, `Phillipsland,' p. 256:

"The plains, or rather downs, around it (Yass) are thinly but most picturesquely covered with `apple-trees,' as they are called by the colonists, merely from their resemblance to the European apple-tree in their size and outline, for they do not resemble it in producing an edible fruit."

1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 32:

"The musk-plant, hyacinth, grass-tree, and kangaroo apple-tree are indigenous."

1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 219:

"Pomona would indignantly disown the apple-tree, for there is not the semblance of a pippin on its tufted branches."

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 113:

"Sandy apple-tree flats, and iron-bark ridges, lined the creek here on either side."

1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 158:

"The desolate flats where gaunt apple-trees rot."

<HW>Apple-berry</HW>, n. the fruit of an Australian shrub, Billardiera scandens, Smith, N.O. Pittosporeae, called by children "dumplings."

1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' pp. 1, 3:

"Billardiera scandens. Climbing Apple Berry. . . . The name Billardiera is given it in honour of James Julian la Billardiere, M.D., F.M.L.S., now engaged as botanist on board the French ships sent in search of M. de la Peyrouse."

<hw>Apple-gum</hw>, n. See Gum.

<hw>Apple-scented gum</hw>, n. See Gum.

<hw>Apteryx</hw>, n. [Grk. 'a privative and pterux, a wing.] A New Zealand bird about the size of a domestic fowl, with merely rudimentary wings.See Kiwi.

1813. G. Shaw, `Naturalist's Miscellany.' c. xxiv. p. 1058 (`O.E.D.'):

"The Southern Apteryx."

1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 137:

"The present Apterix or wingless bird of that country (New Zealand)."

1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 300 [Letter from Rev. W. Colenso, Waitangi, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, Sept. 4, 1850:

"You enquire after an Apteryx. How delighted should I be to succeed in getting you one. Three years ago Owen expressed a similar wish, and I have repeatedly tried, but failed. Yet here they still are in the mountain forests, though, doubtless, fast hastening towards extinction. I saw one in its wild state two years ago in the dense woods of the interior; I saw it clearly. . . . Two living specimens were lately taken by the Acheron, steamer, to Sydney, where they died; these were obtained at the Bay of Islands, where also I once got three at one time. Since then I have not been able to obtain another, although I have offered a great price for one. The fact is, the younger natives do not know how to take them, and the elder ones having but few wants, and those fully supplied, do not care to do so. Further, they can only be captured by night, and the dog must be well trained to be of service."

1874. F. P. Cobbe, in `Littell's Age,' Nov. 7, p. 355 (`Standard'):

"We have clipped the wings of Fancy as close as if she were an Apteryx.'

<hw>Arbutus, Native</hw>, n. See Wax-Cluster.

<hw>Ardoo</hw>, n. See Nardoo.

<hw>Artichoke</hw>, n. name given to the plant Astelia Alpina, R. Br., N.O. Liliaceae.

<hw>Ash</hw>, n. The name, with various epithets, is applied to the following different Australasian trees--

Black Ash-- Nephelium semiglaucum, F. v. M., N.O. Sapindaceae; called also Wild Quince.

Black Mountain A.-- Eucalyptus leucoxylon, F. v. M., N.O. Myrtaceae.

Blue A.-- Elaeodendron australe, Vent., N.O. Celastrinae.

Blueberry A.-- Elaeocarpus holopetalus, F. v. M., N.O. Tiliaceae.

Brush Apple-- Acronychia baueri, Schott. (of Illawarra, N.S.W.).

Crow's A.-- Flindersia australis, R. Br., N.O. Meliaceae.

Elderberry A. (of Victoria)-- Panax sambucifolius, Sieb., N.O. Araliaceae.

Illawarra A.-- Elaeocarpus kirtonia, F. v. M., N.O. Tiliaceae.

Moreton Bay A.-- Eucalyptus tessellaris, Hook., N.O. Myrtaceae.

Mountain A. (see Mountain Ash).

New Zealand A. (see Titoki).

Pigeonberry A.-- Elaeocarpus obovatus, G. Don., N.O. Tiliaceae.

Red A.-- Alphitonia excelsa, Reiss, N.O. Rhamnaceae.

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 75:

"The Moreton Bay Ash (a species of Eucalyptus). ..was here also very plentiful."

<hw>Assigned</hw>, past part. of verb to assign, to allot. Used as adj. of a convict allotted to a settler as a servant. Colloquially often reduced to "signed."

1827. `Captain Robinson's Report,' Dec. 23:

"It was a subject of complaint among the settlers, that their assigned servants could not be known from soldiers, owing to their dress; which very much assisted the crime of `bush-ranging.'"

1837. J. D. Lang, `New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 31

"The assigned servant of a respectable Scotch family residing near Sydney."

1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 75:

"Of the first five persons we saw to Van Diemen's Land, four were convicts, and perhaps the fifth. These were the assigned servants of the pilot."

1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 324:

"Under the old practice, the convicts, as soon as they arrived from Britain, were assigned among the various applicants. The servant thus assigned was bound to perform diligently, from sunrise till sunset, all usual and reasonable labour."

<hw>Assignee</hw>, n. a convict assigned as a servant. The word is also used in its ordinary English sense.

1843. `Penny Cyclopaedia,' vol. xxv. p. 139, col. 2:

"It is comparatively difficult to obtain another assignee,--easy to obtain a hired servant."

1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 324:

"Any instance of gross treatment disqualified him for the future as an assignee of convict labour."

<hw>Assignment</hw>, n. service as above.

1836. C. Darwin, `Journal of Researches' (1890), c. xix. p. 324:

"I believe the years of assignment are passed away with discontent and unhappiness."

1852. John West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 126:

"That form of service, known as assignment, was established by Governor King in 1804."

1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 117:

"The assignment system was then in operation, and such as obtained free grants of land were allowed a certain proportion of convicts to bring it into cultivation."

<hw>Asthma</hw> Herb, Queensland, n. Euphorbia pilulifera, Linn. As the name implies, a remedy for asthma. The herb is collected when in flower and carefully dried.

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 183:

"This plant, having obtained some reputation in Australasia in certain pulmonary complaints, has acquired the appellation to the Colonies of `Queensland Asthma Herb'. Nevertheless, it is by no means endemic in Australasia, for it is a common tropical weed."

<hw>Aua</hw>, n. Maori name for a New Zealand fish, Agonostoma forsteri, Bleek. Another Maori name is Makawhiti; also called Sea-Mullet and sometimes Herring; (q.v.). It is abundant also in Tasmanian estuaries, and is one of the fishes which when dried is called Picton Herring (q.v.). See also Maray and Mullet. Agonostoma is a genus of the family Mugilidae or Grey-Mullets.

<hw>Aurora australis</hw>, n. the Southern equivalent for Aurora borealis.

1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 214:

"Sept. 5, 1788. About half after six in the evening, we saw an Aurora Australis, a phenomenon uncommon in the southern hemisphere."

<hw>Austral</hw>, adj. "Belonging to the South, Southern. Lat. Australis, from auster, south-wind." (`O.E.D.') The word is rarely used in Australasia in its primary sense, but now as equivalent to Australian or Australasian.

1823. Wentworth's Cambridge poem on `Australasia':

"And grant that yet an Austral Milton's song, Pactolus-like, flow deep and rich along, An Austral Shakespeare rise, whose living page To Nature true may charm in every age; And that an Austral Pindar daring soar, Where not the Theban Eagle reach'd before."

1825. Barron Field, `First Fruits of Australian Poetry,' Motto in Geographical Memoir of New South Wales, p. 485:

"I first adventure. Follow me who list; And be the second Austral harmonist." Adapted from Bishop Hall.

1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 184:

"For this, midst Austral wilds I waken Our British harp, feel whence I come, Queen of the sea, too long forsaken, Queen of the soul, my spirit's home."--Alien Song.

1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 43:

"Every servant in this Austral Utopia thinks himself a gentleman."

1868. C. Harpur, `Poems' (ed. 1883), p. 215:

"How oft, in Austral woods, the parting day Has gone through western golden gates away."

1879. J. B. O'Hara, `Songs of the South,' p. 127:

"What though no weird and legendary lore Invests our young, our golden Austral shore With that romance the poet loves too well, When Inspiration breathes her magic spell."

1894. Ernest Favenc [Title]:

"Tales of the Austral Tropics."

1896. [Title]:

"The Austral Wheel--A Monthly Cycling Magazine, No. 1, Jan."

1896. `The Melburnian,' Aug. 28, p. 53

"Our Austral Spring." [Title of an article describing Spring in Australia.]

<hw>Australasia</hw>, n. (and its adjectives), name "given originally by De Brosses to one of his three divisions of the alleged Terra australis." (`O.E.D.') Now used as a larger term than Australian, to include the continent of Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji and islands. For peculiar use of the name for the Continent in 1793, see Australia.

1756. Charles de Brosses, `Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes,' tom. i. p. 80:

"On peut de meme diviser le monde austral inconnu en trois portions. .. .L'une dans l'ocean des Indes au sud de l'Asie que j'appellerai par cette raison australasie."

1766. Callander, `Terra Australis,' i. p. 49 (Translation of de Brosses)(`O.E.D.):

"The first [division] in the Indian Ocean, south of Asia, which for this reason we shall call Australasia."

1802. G. Shaw, `Zoology,' iii. p. 506 (`O.E.D.'):

"Other Australasian snakes."

1823. Subject for English poem at Cambridge University:

`Australasia.'

[The prize (Chancellor's Medal) was won by Winthrop Mackworth Praed. William Charles Wentworth stood second.] The concluding lines of his poem are:

"And Australasia float, with flag unfurl'd, A new Britannia in another world."

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 77:

"How far had these ideas been acted upon by the Colonists of Austral Asia?" [sic.]

1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. 1. p. 109:

"`The Austral-Asiatic Review,' by Murray, also made its appearance [in Hobart] in February, 1828."

1855. Tennyson, `The Brook,' p. 194:

" Katie walks By the long wash of Australasian seas Far off, and holds her head to other stars, And breathes in converse seasons."

[Altered in Edition of 1894 to "breathes in April-autumns."]

1857. Daniel Bunce [Title]:

"Australasiatic reminiscences."

1864. `The Australasian,' Oct. 1, First Number [Title]:

"The Australasian."

1880. Alfred R. Wallace [Title]:

"Australasia." [In Stanford's `Compendium of Geography and Travel.']

1881. David Blair [Title]:

"Cyclopaedia of Australasia."

1890. E. W. Hornung, `Bride from the Bush,' p. 29:

"It was neither Cockney nor Yankee, but a nasal blend of both: it was a lingo that declined to let the vowels run alone, but trotted them out in ill-matched couples, with discordant and awful consequences; in a word, it was Australasiatic of the worst description."

1890. `Victorian Consolidated Statutes,' Administration and p.obate Act, Section 39:

"`Australasian Colonies,' shall mean all colonies for the time being on the main land of Australia. ..and shall also include the colonies of New Zealand, Tasmania and Fiji and any other British Colonies or possessions in Australasia now existing or hereafter to be created which the Governor in Council may from time to time declare to be Australasian Colonies within the meaning of this Act."

1895. Edward Jenks [Title]:

"History of the Australasian Colonies."

1896. J. S. Laurie [Title]:

"The Story of Australasia."

<hw>Australia</hw>, n., and <hw>Australian</hw>, adj. As early as the 16th century there was a belief in a Terra australis (to which was often added the epithet incognita), literally "southern land," which was believed to be land lying round and stretching outwards from the South Pole.

In `Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia,' Sydney, Jan. 1892, is printed a paper read at the Geographical Congress at Berne, by E. Delmar Morgan, on the `Early Discovery of Australia.' This paper is illustrated by maps taken from `Nordenskiold's Atlas.' In a map by Orontius Finoeus, a French cosmographer of Provence, dated 1531, the Terra australis is shown as "Terra Australis recenter inventa, sed nondum plene cognita." In Ortelius' Map, 1570, it appears as "Terra Australis nondum cognita." In Gerard Mercator's Map, 1587, as "Terra Australis" simply.

In 1606 the Spaniard Fernandez de Quiros gave the name of Terra Australis del Espiritu Santo to land which he thought formed part of the Great Southland. It is in fact one of the New Hebrides.

The word "Australian " is older than "Australia" (see quotations, 1693 and 1766). The name Australia was adapted from the Latin name Terra Australis. The earliest suggestion of the word is credited to Flinders, who certainly thought that he was inventing the name. (See quotation, 1814.) Twenty-one years earlier, however, the word is found (see quotation, 1793); and the passage containing it is the first known use of the word in print. Shaw may thus be regarded as its inventor. According to its title-page, the book quoted is by two authors, the Zoology, by Shaw and the Botany by Smith. The Botany, however, was not published. Of the two names--Australia and Australasia--suggested in the opening of the quotation, to take the place of New Holland, Shaw evidently favoured Australia, while Smith, in the `Transactions of the Linnaean Society,' vol. iv. p. 213 (1798), uses Australasia for the continent several times. Neither name, however, passed then into general use. In 1814, Robert Brown the Botanist speaks of "Terra Australis," not of "Australia." "Australia" was reinvented by Flinders.

Quotations for " Terra Australis"--

1621. R. Burton, `Anatomy of Melancholy' (edition 1854), p. 56:

"For the site, if you will needs urge me to it, I am not fully resolved, it may be in Terra Australis incognita, there is room enough (for of my knowledge, neither that hungry Spaniard nor Mercurius Britannicus have yet discovered half of it)."

Ibid. p. 314:

"Terra Australis incognita. ..and yet in likelihood it may be so, for without all question, it being extended from the tropic of Capricorn to the circle Antarctic, and lying as it doth in the temperate zone, cannot choose but yield in time some flourishing kingdoms to succeeding ages, as America did unto the Spaniards."

Ibid. p. 619:

"But these are hard-hearted, unnatural, monsters of men, shallow politicians, they do not consider that a great part of the world is not yet inhabited as it ought, how many colonies into America, Terra Australis incognita, Africa may be sent?"

Early quotations for "Australian"

1693. `Nouveau Voyage de la Terre Australe, contenant les Coutumes et les Moeurs des Australiens, etc.' Par Jaques Sadeur [Gabriel de Foigny].

[This is a work of fiction, but interesting as being the first book in which the word Australiens is used. The next quotation is from the English translation.]

1693. `New Discovery, Terra Incognita Australis,' p. 163 (`O.E.D.'):

"It is easy to judge of the incomparability of the Australians with the people of Europe."

1766. Callander, `Terra Australis' (Translation of De Brosses), c. ii. p. 280:

"One of the Australians, or natives of the Southern World, whom Gonneville had brought into France."

Quotations for "Australia"

1793. G. Shaw and I. E. Smith, `Zoology and Botany of New Holland,' p. 2:

"The vast Island or rather Continent of Australia, Australasia, or New Holland, which has so lately attracted the particular attention of European navigators and naturalists, seems to abound in scenes of peculiar wildness and sterility; while the wretched natives of many of those dreary districts seem less elevated above the inferior animals than in any other part of the known world; Caffraria itself not excepted; as well as less indued with the power of promoting a comfortable existence by an approach towards useful arts and industry. It is in these savage regions however that Nature seems to have poured forth many of her most highly ornamented products with unusual liberality."

1814. M. Flinders, `Voyage to Terra Australis,' Introduction, p. iii. and footnote:

"I have . . . ventured upon the readoption of the original Terra Australis, and of this term I shall hereafter make use, when speaking of New Holland [sc. the West] and New South Wales, in a collective sense; and when using it in the most extensive signification, the adjacent isles, including that of Van Diemen, must be understood to be comprehended." [Footnote]: "Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term, it would have been to convert it into Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth."

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 9:

"New South Wales (or Australia, as we colonials say)."

1839. C. Darwin, `Naturalist's Voyage' (ed. 1890), p. 328:

"Farewell, Australia! You are a rising child, and doubtless some day will reign a great princess in the South; but you are too great and ambitious for affection, yet not great enough for respect. I leave your shores without sorrow or regret."

1852. A Liverpool Merchant [Title]:

"A Guide to Australia and the Gold Regions."

1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. viii. (new ed.) p. 152:

"The colonies are determined to be separate. Australia is a term that finds no response in the patriotic feeling of any Australian. . . . But this will come to an end sooner or later. The name of Australia will be dearer, if not greater, to Australian ears than the name of Great Britain."

[Mr. Trollope's prophecy has come true, and the name of Australia is now dearer to an Australian than the name of his own separate colony. The word "Colonial" as indicating Australian nationality is going out of fashion. The word "Australian" is much preferred.]

1878. F. P. Labilliere, `Early History of the Colony of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 184:

"In a despatch to Lord Bathurst, of April 4th, 1817, Governor Macquarie acknowledges the receipt of Captain Flinders's charts of `Australia.' This is the first time that the name of Australia appears to have been officially employed. The Governor underlines the word. . . . In a private letter to Mr. Secretary Goulbourn, M.P., of December 21st, 1817, [he]says . . . `the Continent of Australia, which, I hope, will be the name given to this country in future, instead of the very erroneous and misapplied name hitherto given it of New Holland, which, properly speaking, only applies to a part of this immense Continent.'"

1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 64:

"It is pleasant to reflect that the name Australia was selected by the gallant Flinders; though, with his customary modesty, he suggested rather than adopted it."

1895. H. M. Goode, `The Argus,' Oct. 15, p. 7, col. 4:

"Condemning the absurd practice of using the word `Colonial' in connection with our wines, instead of the broader and more federal one, `Australian.' In England our artists, cricketer, scullers, and globe-trotters are all spoken of and acknowledged as Australians, and our produce, with the exception of wine, is classed as follows:--Australian gold and copper, Australian beef and mutton, Australian butter, Australian fruits, &c."

Ibid. p. 14:

"Merops or Bee-Eater. A tribe [of birds] which appears to be peculiarly prevalent in the extensive regions of Australia."

<hw>Australian</hw> flag, n. Hot climate and country work have brought in a fashion among bushmen of wearing a belt or leather strap round the top of trousers instead of braces. This often causes a fold in the shirt protruding all round from under the waistcoat, which is playfully known as "the Australian flag." Slang.

<hw>Australioid</hw> and <hw>Australoid</hw>, adj. like Australian, sc. aboriginal--a term used by ethnologists. See quotations.

1869. J. Lubbock, `Prehistoric Times,' vol. xii. p. 378:

"The Australoid type contains all the inhabitants of Australia and the native races of the Deccan."

1878. E. B. Tylor, `Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. ii. p. 112:

"He [Professor Huxley] distinguishes four principal types of mankind, the Australioid, Negroid, Mongoloid, and Xanthochroic, adding a fifth variety, the Melanochroic. The special points of the Australioid are a chocolate-brown skin, dark brown or black eyes, black hair (usually wavy), narrow (dolichocephalic) skull, brow-ridges strongly developed, projecting jaw, coarse lips and broad nose. This type is best represented by the natives of Australia, and next to them by the indigenous tribes of Southern India, the so-called coolies."

<hw>Austral Thrush</hw>, n. See Port-Jackson Thrush.

<hw>Avocet</hw>, n. a well-known European bird-name. The Australian species is the Red-necked A., Recurvirostra nova-hollandiae, Vieill.

<hw>Aweto</hw>, n. Maori name for a vegetable-caterpillar of New Zealand. See quotation.

1889. E. Wakefield, `New Zealand after Fifty Years,' p. 81:

". . . the aweto, or vegetable-caterpillar, called by the naturalists Hipialis virescens. It is a perfect caterpillar in every respect, and a remarkably fine one too, growing to a length in the largest specimens of three and a half inches and the thickness of a finger, but more commonly to about a half or two-thirds of that size. . . . When full-grown, it undergoes a miraculous change. For some inexplicable reason, the spore of a vegetable fungus Sphaeria Robertsii, fixes itself on its neck, or between the head and the first ring of the caterpillar, takes root and grows vigorously . . . exactly like a diminutive bulrush from 6 to 10 inches high without leaves, and consisting solely of a single stem with a dark-brown felt-like head, so familiar in the bulrushes . . . always at the foot of the rata."

1896. A. Bence Jones, in `Pearson's Magazine,' Sept., p. 290:

"The dye in question was a solution of burnt or powdered resin, or wood, or the aweto, the latter a caterpillar, which, burrowing in the vegetable soil, gets a spore of a fungus between the folds of its neck, and unable to free itself, the insect's body nourishes the fungus, which vegetates and occasions the death of the caterpillar by exactly filling the interior of the body with its roots, always preserving its perfect form. When properly charred this material yielded a fine dark dye, much prized for purposes of moko." [See Moko.]

<hw>Axe-breaker</hw>, n. name of a tree, Notelaea longifolia, Vent., N.O. Jasmineae.

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 579:

"Axe-breaker. Wood hard, close-grained and firm. Its vernacular name emphasizes its hardness."

<hw>Baal</hw>, or <hw>Bail</hw>, interj. and adv. "An aboriginal expression of disapproval." (Gilbert Parker, Glossary to `Round the Compass in Australia,' 1888.) It was the negative in the Sydney dialect.

1893. J. F. Hogan, `Robert Lowe,' p. 271, quoting from `The Atlas' (circa 1845):

"Traces, however, of the Egyptian language are discoverable among the present inhabitants, with whom, for instance, the word `Bale' or `Baal' is in continual use . . . ." [Evidently a joke.]

<hw>Babbler</hw>, n. a bird-name. In Europe, "name given, on account of their harsh chattering note, to the long-legged thrushes." (`O.E.D.') The group "contains a great number of birds not satisfactorily located elsewhere, and has been called the ornithological waste-basket." (`Century.') The species are--

The Babbler-- Pomatostomus temporalis, V. and H.

Chestnut-crowned B.-- P. ruficeps, Hart.

Red-breasted B.-- P. rubeculus, Gould.

White-browed B.-- P. superciliosus, V. and H.

<hw>Back-blocks</hw>, n. (1) The far interior of Australia, and away from settled country. Land in Australia is divided on the survey maps into blocks, a word confined, in England and the United States, to town lands.

(2) The parts of a station distant from the frontage (q.v.).

1872. Anon. `Glimpses of Life in Victoria,' p. 31:

". . . we were doomed to see the whole of our river-frontage purchased. . . . The back blocks which were left to us were insufficient for the support of our flocks, and deficient in permanent water-supply. . . ."

1880. J. Mathew, Song--`The Bushman':

"Far, far on the plains of the arid back-blocks A warm-hearted bushman is tending his flocks. There's little to cheer in that vast grassy sea: But oh! he finds pleasure in thinking of me. How weary, how dreary the stillness must be! But oh! the lone bushman is dreaming of me."

1890. E. W. Horning, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 298:

"`Down in Vic' you can carry as many sheep to the acre as acres to the sheep up here in the `backblocks.'"

1893. M. Gaunt, `English Illustrated, `Feb., p. 294:

"The back-blocks are very effectual levellers."

1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life,' p. 33

"In the back-blocks of New South Wales he had known both hunger and thirst, and had suffered from sunstroke."

1893. `The Australasian,' Aug. 12, p. 302, col. 1:

"Although Kara is in the back-blocks of New South Wales, the clothes and boots my brother wears come from Bond Street."

<hw>Back-block</hw>, adj. from the interior.

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydneyside Saxon,' vol. xii. p. 215:

"`What a nice mare that is of yours!' said one of the back-block youngsters."

<hw>Back-blocker</hw>, n. a resident in the back-blocks.

1870. `The Argus,' March 22, p. 7, col. 2

"I am a bushman, a back blocker, to whom it happens about once in two years to visit Melbourne."

1892. E. W. Hornung, `Under Two Skies,' p. 21:

"As for Jim, he made himself very busy indeed, sitting on his heels over the fire in an attitude peculiar to back-blockers."

<hw>Back-slanging</hw>, verbal n. In the back-blocks (q.v.) of Australia, where hotels are naturally scarce and inferior, the traveller asks for hospitality at the stations (q.v.) on his route, where he is always made welcome. There is no idea of anything underhand on the part of the traveller, yet the custom is called back-slanging.

<hw>Badger</hw>, n. This English name has been incorrectly applied in Australia, sometimes to the Bandicoot, sometimes to the Rock-Wallaby, and sometimes to the Wombat. In Tasmania, it is the usual bush-name for the last.

1829. `The Picture of Australia,' p. 173:

"The Parameles, to which the colonists sometimes give the name of badger. . . ."

1831. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 265:

"That delicious animal, the wombat (commonly known at that place [Macquarie Harbour] by the name of badger, hence the little island of that name in the map was so called, from the circumstance of numbers of that animal being at first found upon it)."

1850. James Bennett Clutterbuck, M.D., `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 37:

"The rock Wallaby, or Badger, also belongs to the family of the Kangaroo; its length from the nose to the end of the tail is three feet; the colour of the fur being grey-brown."

1875. Rev. J. G. Wood, `Natural History,' vol. i. p. 481:

"The Wombat or Australian Badger as it is popularly called by the colonists. . . ."

1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 8:

"With the exception of wombats or `badgers,' and an occasional kangaroo . . . the intruder had to rely on the stores he carried with him."

ibid. p. 44:

"Badgers also abound, or did until thinned out by hungry prospectors."

<hw>Badger-box</hw>, n. slang name for a roughly- constructed dwelling.

1875. `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,' September, p. 99 [`Port Davey in 1875,' by the Hon. James Reid Scott, M.L.C.]:

"The dwellings occupied by the piners when up the river are of the style known as `Badger-boxes,' in distinction from huts, which have perpendicular walls, while the Badger-box is like an inverted V in section. They are covered with bark, with a thatch of grass along the ridge, and are on an average about 14 x 10 feet at the ground, and 9 or 10 feet high."

<hw>Bail</hw>, n. "A framework for securing the head of a cow while she is milked." (`O.E.D.')

This word, marked in `O.E.D.' and other Dictionaries as Australian, is provincial English. In the `English Dialect Dictionary,' edited by Joseph Wright,