I04 ABORIGINES NAMES OF MINERALS AND ROCKS. 



1. COAL. — I can only find one word for coal, viz., 

 " Conara," in Calder's vocabulary, who quotes d'Entre- 

 casteaux as his authority ; but it is apparently not con- 

 tained in any other vocabulary. 



Coal was of no value to the Aborigines, and it is 

 more than probable that they took very little notice of 

 it. As, however, coal seams crop out closely to the sea 

 shore -at the localities visited by d'Entrecasteaux, there 

 is every probability that a specimen lying amongst the 

 rubble on the beach was found by him or his men, and 

 its name ascertained by questioning an Aborigine. 



2. CHARCOAL. — ^Though not exactly a mineral, I 

 find it convenient to include this substance in my list. 

 According to Milligan the words are — 



Eastern Tribes — Maweena. 

 Southern Tribes — Loarra. 



La Billiardiere and Peron both use the word 



Loira, 



stating that this means charcoal reduced to powder, 

 with which they cover their bodies. Now, there is no 

 doubt that Loarra and Loira are identical, but it will be 

 seen that this word is very dififerent from that one as 

 used by the Eastern Tribes. 



Now, one of the most characteristic features of char- 

 coal is its blackness, and if we look up under the bead-" 

 ing " black " we find — 



Eastern Tribes — Mawback and Mawbanna. 

 Southern Tribes — Loaparte. 



We also find 



Dirtyrr^mawpa and mawpack. 



" Dirty " and " black " are therefore synonymous^ 

 exactly as '' clean " and " white." 



In the words for " black ' ' we have undoubtedly the 

 same words as those used for charcoal, and we may 

 therefore take it that there existed no proper name for 

 charcoal ; it was simply called " (the) black " from its 



