APPENDIX. 347 



word; whilst others are the result of subsequent inter- 

 course. 



StiUj it cannot absolutely be said that the Erroob or 

 Miriam tongue is not Australian also, or vice versd. Still 

 less, is it absolutely certain that the former is not transi- 

 tional between the New Guinea language and the Austra- 

 lian. I believe, however, that it is not so. 



The doubts as to the philological position of the Miriam 

 are by no means diminished by reference to the nearest 

 unequivocally Papuan vocabulary, via. that of Redscar Bay. 

 Here the difference exceeds rather than falls short of oiu" 

 expectations. The most important of the few words which 

 coincide are 



On the other hand, the Redscar Bay word for throat, 

 kato, coincides with the Austrahan karta of the Gudang of 

 Cape York. Again, a complication is introduced by the 

 word huni-mata = eyebrow. Here mata ^= eye, and, conse- 

 quently, buni = brow. This root re-appears in the Erroob ; 

 but there it means the eyeball, as shewn by the following 

 words from Jukes' Vocabulary. 



£!ye irkeep 



Eyebrow irkeep-moos = eye-hair 



Eye ball poni 



Eyelid poni-pow = eyeball-hair 



Probably the truer meaning of the Redscar Bay word is 

 eyeball. 



No inference is safer than that which brings the popu- 



