22 The Etymology of the Name ' Emu ' 



However, the sailors put the matter to the test by administering 

 to the bird a dose of hollands ; perhaps the hollands was ignited 

 and administered in the form of liquid fire, but it is not expressly 

 stated that this was the case. This cassowary was brought alive 

 to Amsterdam in 1597, and was presented to the Estates of 

 Holland at the Hague.* A figure of it, under the name ' eme,' 

 appears in the fourth and fifth German editions of the account 

 of this voyage of the Dutch to Java, by Hulsius, published at 

 Frankfort in 1606 and 1625. The figure is a fairly accurate 

 representation of an immature cassowary. 



Whence comes, let us ask, the name ' eme ' and the later 

 form, ' emu.' The JSIew Historical English Dictionary suggests 

 a derivation from a Portuguese word, ' ema,' signifying a crane. 

 But no authority is quoted to prove that ema signifies, or ever 

 signified, crane. On the other hand, various Portuguese 

 dictionaries which have been consulted render ' ema ' by ' casoar,' 

 or state that the name ' ema ' is applicable to several birds, of 

 which the crane is not one. Pero de Magalhaes de Gandavo, 

 in his Hisloria da Provincia Sancta Cruz^ published in 1576, 

 uses the name ' hema ' in writing of the rhea or nandu. 



It is worthy of note that the Arabic name of the cassowary 

 is * neama ', and that there were many Arab traders in the 

 Malayan Archipelago at the time when the Portuguese first 

 navigated it. The Portuguese strangely distorted Malay and 

 Arabic names, and it would not be surprising if they reproduced 

 ' neama ' as ' uma ema.' 



* Salvador!, referring to Hist. Gen. de Foy. VIII. p. 112, states that the 

 Cassowary which was brought alive to Europe by the Dutch in 1597 belonged 

 first to Count Solms van Gravenhage, then to the Elector Ernest van Keulen, and 

 finally to the Emperor Rudolph II. Ornit, della Papuasia e delle Molucche. III. 

 p. 481. 



