May-I Spesckk, What is Nardoo. 



1918 J ^ 



(i) What is Nardoo. 



In the Australasian of 12th February, 1910, Mr. E. J. Welch, 

 under the title of "The Explorer — Dietary Experiences," 

 referred to nardoo. Mr. Welch was a member of the Howitt 

 contingent rehef party, and, on being communicated with, he 

 distinctly asserted, in the Victorian Naturalist, the identity of 

 nardoo with the plant Marsilea.* In reply to this Mr. Lees 

 says t : — " According to Mr. Welch, and, in fact, to every 

 writer on the subject, it is identified with Marsilea, or with some 

 other specific plant. I maintain that this is not so. Nardoo 

 is not a plant at all ; it is a food obtained from several plants." 



Experience in Central and Northern Australia, whilst living 

 amongst various tribes, has enabled me to gain some insight 

 into native matters. In the first place, one has to be very careful 

 in regard to words such as " nardoo." A white man living 

 for a time in one locality hears a native name applied to some 

 special object. When he travels on to another place he carries 

 this name with him, and, as likely as not, applies it to some 

 other thing to which, either in general appearance or in regard 

 to its use, it is apparently similar, and the native, wishing to 

 please the white man, adopts the new name, with the result 

 that confusion arises in consequence of the same name being 

 apphed to two different objects. Or, again, a name that is 

 applied originally in one special tribe to one special object 

 may become widely used for the latter, because it is carried 

 on from tribe to tribe by white men, or even by natives working 

 for them, as the country is opened up or settlement extends. 



The name nardoo, nardu, gnardu, or ardoo is a case in point. 

 The word belongs to the language of the Yantruwanta tribe, 

 in the Lake Eyre district ; but, thanks to white men, it has been 

 widely spread over Central Australia, and for many years past 

 has been used by native tribes to whom it was quite unknown 

 before the advent of the former. So, again, the same is true 

 of the word " munyeru," used in connection with the seeds 

 of species of Claytonia and of cakes made from them by natives 

 in many parts of Central Australia. At Alice Springs, for 

 example, the real native name is " ingwitchika," but the name 

 " munyeru " has been adopted from the white men, and is, 

 or was, almost universally used. 



It may be noted also that mistakes are liable to arise because, 

 if a native be asked by a white man a question, such as "Is 

 this nardoo ? " and he thinks that the answer " Yes " will 

 please the former, he will as likely as not return what is the 

 wrong answer, just because of his anxiety to please. 



* Vict. Nat., May, 1910, vol. xxvii., p. 16. 



t Vict. Nat., January, 1915, vol. xxxi., p. 135. 



