336 THE XORMAN VOCABULARY. 



(P. 10) petiially up to his knees in water. Some of the blacks 

 are very hardy, and will venture out a long way in this^ 

 precarious construction, but oftentimes perish in their 

 perilous undertakings.] 



Trokenur — to copulate. [Their mode of courtship 

 is both uncouth and arbitrary. If a black fixes his 

 afifection upon any particular woman, and she rebuffs 

 his suit, he has recourse to every possible method of 

 tantaHsation to render her time burdensome and miser- 

 able. He watches- over her day and night, and never 

 ceases his fulsome overtures till he has absolutely forced 

 her into compliance for the sake of getting rid of his 

 importunities. Females are estimated according to their 

 (P. 11) strength and their facility in diving. The conjugal state 

 is attended with much drudgery and fatigue on the part 

 of the women, who, though not held in that state of 

 indifference and unfeeling subserviency which charac- 

 terises other savage nations, are taught to consider them- 

 selves subordinate to their husbands, and compelled to 

 submit to their will and pleasure.] 



Tronecartee — look, behold; tyaner, teethaner — ex- 

 cremt; noriddiack — no good; karwarler — cold; neener — 

 you; meener — me; carnee — to speak. [Also applied to 

 the neighing of a horse, the snorting of a pig, etc., etc.] 



(P. 12) Triagurlugurne, plegurlarner— earth; memunrack, 



loneroner — sick or unwell. [When a native is overtaken 

 by sickness which creates internal pain, it is usual for 

 him to have recourse to bleeding. The remedy he adopts 

 on the whole is in immediate unison with that deplorable 

 ignorance and Ijarbarity which characterise human 

 nature in its unpolished state. After filling his breast 

 with deep and dreadful gashes till it copiously bleeds, 

 he proceeds to bind his joints with ligatures made of 

 curryjong bark or of the sinews of a kangaroo. If lie 

 experiences no relief from this, he gives himself up to 

 the embrace of death, fully convinced that he is propelled 

 to his fate by that irresistible spirit called "Ragurwropper 



(P i'^) "Lagurwropperne," and therefore that no human 

 means can avert his predestined doom. He then 

 becomes sullen and silent, and pertinaciousl}' refuses to 

 partake of any nutriment save water, of which he drinks 

 to an extravagant excess. This, together with the bar- 

 barous process at first resorted to, generally hurries him 



