BY KKITZ NOETLING, M.A., PH.D. 



85 



tinguished by different names. In fact, his note seems to 

 indicate that there was one kind of basket only, a view 

 which is fully borne out by the specimens still preserved. 



It is impossible for me to explain these words, and I 

 must leave it to others better acquainted with the Tas- 

 manian language than I am to explain them. In my opin- 

 ion, the last three words of Norman (5, 6, 7) have probably 

 nothing to do with baskets (23). 



TheTasmanian Museum in ITobart possesses 10 baskets, 

 the measurements of which are given below : — 



(23) Again I am indebted to Mr. Ritz for an ingenious explanatiou 

 of tliese words. Mr. Ritz says: — 



My ilieory would explain tlie words as follows: — 



1. Tugtiljrana, tubbrana equal to tuga, perina breone equal to eat 



fish. 

 The basket represented as swallowing the fish or oysters. 



2. Trenail, tareena, terri, tille, equal to terina, skeleton. The 



baskets were not solid, but open worked, for fishing. Those for 

 carrying water (see Roth, p. 142) were, of course, nearly water- 

 tight; they were nitipa (Roth, p. xviii.) e(|ual to ni-tapa equal to 

 not dripping (tap, the noise ol falling drops). 



3. Tringherar is given by Norman also as meaning "to swim." 

 ■Poakalar, jjarnella — Norman gives to these words also the meaning 



of mussel. 



Meerar is probably a form of peri-na or breo-ne fish. 



In my "Speech of the Tasnianian Aborigines" (p. 33) I sugge.sted 

 that Norman was likely to mistake his own presumptions for the in- 

 formation given by aboriginals. Here we find several likely in- 

 stances. He pointed to a fishing basket, and asked foi Ita name. One 

 would tell him it was used wlien the women went swimming (tring- 

 herar), another would say it was for mussels (poakalar, parnellar) ; and 

 a third said it was for holding shell fish (mera-na, or perana). He 

 quite seriously assumed that these words meant basket. 



Incidentally we find a remarkable similarity to buckalow in poakalar, 

 warkellar (p. 7 of Norman's MS.). 



Mussel equal to round, swimming, or floating. 



Again, the words are apparently not names of different things, but 

 different names of one thing. 



