114 THE ABORIGINAL NAMES OF RIVERS 
tion of an aspirate at the beginning. In Victoria such forms as 
ummut and ammitch for sea are found. Here then are tolerably 
plain evidences that the letter m, as a matter of fact, was used by 
the aborigines as in some way specially fitted to occupy a place 
in words intended to represent water. 
Turning now to the gazetteers and books of Australian travel 
for the actual names of rivers and streams, there are found such 
names as Ma-Ma and Mi-Mi Creek in Queensland. In New South 
Wales there is Qoma Creek, a form which so closely resembles the 
word amu, water, which has already come before us. Still further, 
in Victoria, there is the Moe swamp. In such cases, where there 
is no other consonant than the radical m itself, the conclusion 
seems every way reasonable that Ma-Ma and Mi-Mi and Ooma 
and Moe just signified the water in the lips of the people who lived 
on the banks of these waters respectively. In farther consulting 
the gazetteers, large numbers of compound words for rivers and 
waters are found to contain the termination ma. Thus there are 
such names as the Murrwma Creek, Muttwma Creek, and many 
more. Here, however, an apparent difficulty occurs, for as the 
aboriginal names are scrutinized the form Jfia-Mia is found to 
designate a mountain. In the meantime it may suffice to point 
out that m is found to be a radical form used to designate water, 
but not mountains; and (2) such a name as JMia-Mia pretty 
trees. The Mia-Mia mountain, accordingly, was very probably so 
named from some circumstance regarding aboriginal shelters 
upon it. 
The next stage in our inquiry is to compare the result so far 
is to be noticed that the form mo, for water, remounts to a very 
high antiquity, as it was employed by the Egyptians. Closely allied 
was the Phenician form, mu; in Hebrew maim is the plural for 
waters. At this point it is not amiss to pcint out that the letter 
m, especially in its running still more than in its capital form, has 
a pictorial significance in addition to its fitness to represent water 
owing to its humming sound, for the letter m is taken from the 
hieroglyphic representation of the ripple on the surface of water, 
world. But, still pursuing the subject, it is to be noticed that the 
form ma is the Arabic for water; wma is the Draverian ; and the 
same root-letter is found in the Tungusian and other Asiatic dia- 
lects. Still farther, mam means fresh water in the island of 
Tarawa, while mem means the same in Rotumah; amar and 
hwamo denote the swell of the sea in Maori; mi is water the 
Tigre language ; and the root occurs in many more African dia 
3B 
q 
a 
; 
j 
< 
8 
i 
a 
i 
a 
