176 VOCABULARY OF THE MT. SPENCER BLACKS. 



saying n'yanza, n'yassa, n'gami, etc.) The utterance seems 

 to be suddenly cut off by the tongue and forced up the 

 nose, producing an explosive sound like the noise of a 

 " water-hammer "' in the tap of a water pipe when a sister 

 tap in the same pipe is suddenly turned off. Try as I would, 

 I could not tell whether their word for bowels was '' malcoo " 

 or ■■ walcoo." The sound seemed intermediate between 

 the two Then when I tried to say the same word the old 

 fellow became convulsed with laughter. It was evident 

 I had committed some aA\^u) solecism in his tongue, but 

 what it was he would not tell me. He simply roared 

 afresh. It was as if one had called a German maiden 

 ■' bengel " for " engel." 



Forewarned was forearmed, and I secured, moreover, 

 the help of my brother, who has known for years every 

 surviving blackfellow in this locality and enjoyed the 

 confidence of all. 



I asked as many questions at one sitting as I thought 

 fair to the patience of the old man (for it is a tedious business 

 if you have set your heart on being absolutely correct), 

 and intended to procure another " yabber " (talk) later on. 



However, he was called elsewhere, and, before my 

 next visit, died. It is therefore no longer possible to com- 

 plete the vocabulary of this tribe, but the list given may be 

 useful for pvirposes of comparison. Thus these blacks 

 call water " camoo," while 50 miles west, we have in 

 *' coomoo (bolaroo) " the same word. 



On the Middle Dawson River we have '' mil " for 

 *' eye," as in "' mil-bookum " and " gooninny-mil." 



Right away in the West Moreton District, 300 miles 

 south, we have "mil-bong" i.e., eye dead, eye gone or 

 missing, eye poked out, blind in one eye ; and " mil " extends 

 far, far south. Yet, at Mt. Spencer, only 50 mil6s to the 

 north-east, " eye " is " tee'parry ". On the Middle Dawson 

 and far to the southward, "foot" is " man-do-ee," but 

 with the Mt. Spencer blacks it is " tid-nah." 



On the Walsh River in the far north of Queensland 

 many of the common words are identical with those used 



