THE VOCAlirLAHY OF THE MT. SPENCER 

 BLACKS. 



By r. Bennett, B.Sc. 



{ Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, SOth September, 



1918). 



A few years ago, on the Middle Dawson, my brother 

 pointed out to me a very old blackfe'low, tne last of the 

 Lower Dee blacks. He came from the Mt. Spencer area, 

 which lies about 50 miles south-west of Rockhampton. 

 As I was aware (1) that the blacks on the Lower Dee River 

 differed somewhat in their dialect from those of the 

 Middle Dawson, 50 miles further to the south-west : (2) 

 that this black was the last who might be able to throw any 

 light on the matter ; and (3) that this black and I might 

 never meet again, or that he might soon die, I determined 

 to get what information I could before it was too late. 



There are, however, several difficulties in deahng with 

 blacks, thus : (a) You wish to obtain the name of a stream ; 

 you point to the water and say "" what name that pfeller i '' 

 The blackfellow sees with keen eye an eel in the water, 

 and, as anything edible is important to him, he naturally 

 supposes that you have seen the eel (though you have not) 

 and it is, to him, perfectly natural that you should inquire 

 about it. He therefore says " go'yooh,'' and you enter 

 this as the name for " stream," when it is really the name 

 for " eeL" (6) It is almost impossible for a white man 

 successfully to imitate the sound of the blacks' words. 

 Often the utterance is preceded by a kind of nasal " gluck " 

 {similar to that used by the '' n " tribes in Africa when 



