THE WOMBAT. 



for Section F, of which I was Secretary. This he accordingly did. 

 The paper was read at one of the meetings of the Section, and was 

 handed to a small committee of three members for further 

 consideration. I do not know if that committee made any use of 

 Mr. Cary's communication or reported on it, but the paper itself 

 was published in Vol. VII. (Sydney meeting) of the Australasian 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. Since then, I have 

 given a little more careful attention to these Woddowro pronouns, 

 and, in consequence, I seem to understand what they are. The 

 results of my investigation I am now requested to make known in 

 the pages of the Wombat. Mr. Cary's discovery is unique and 

 important, for the Australian dialects have not furnished any other 

 instance of the use of a ternal number in the pronouns, and this 

 example of it serves as a link to connect our blacks with the 

 Melanesians of the islands of the Western Pacific. 



The history of the discovery is this, In the year 1838 — only 

 a few years later that the first settlement of white men on the 

 shores of Port Phillip — the Wesleyan Methodists began a mission 

 to the Woddowro, Dantgurt and Kolijon tribes, in what is now the 

 Geelong district. One of these who engaged in this labour of love 

 was Francis Tuckfield, a young man who had come from Cornwall, 

 full of hope and zeal for the betterment of the natives by trying to 

 christianize and civilize them. In this work he spent ten of the 

 best years of his life. Mr. Cary goes on to say, " A large 

 vocabulary was compiled in the first years of the mission, but it was 

 unfortunately lost in a fire that destroyed the mission-house. 

 . . . . In his note book is preserved a collection of about two 

 hundred short sentences, some translations of Scripture, and a 

 vocabulary of over two hundred words. By the kindness of the 

 Tuckfield family, it has been my privilege to inspect their father's 

 journal, letters, and note book ; and, when perusing the latter, I 

 unearthed a grammatical form of number hitherto practically 

 unnoticed as a peculiarity in Australian language. That dual 

 number is a feature of several Australian dialects is well-known ; 

 but with the Woddowro, number as a means of precision was 

 amplified yet another degree. And herein lies the discovery ; 

 these natives of the Geelong district used triple number." 



This then is the history of the case ; I will now proceed to 

 show what I can make of it. And in doing so, I (shall use the 

 terms Singular, Binal, Ternal, Plural number. The word ' dual ' 

 has so established itself in grammar that everybody seems to have 

 acquiesced in its use, but, on the analogy of Singular 

 (from Lat. s^nguli, ' one-by-one '; it ought to be Binal, 

 which is suitable, for it marks that two are spoken of each time. 

 The name ' trial * for the triple number is an awkward word ; and 

 so, on analogy again, I use Ternal. And in discussing this 

 question I will advance by a series of Propositions. 



