IN AUSTRALIA PHILOLOGICALLY EXAMINED. 139 
caution ; for so common have these misnomers become that many 
of the younger generation of blacks have adopted the altered word. 
Mr. MacPherson assumes that each compound name includes 
one or more syllables which indicate a root-word used by the 
parts of the world, and gives innumerable examples in support of 
his argument. However ingenious this theory ma yom 
that it will prove a difficult one to carry out, for one "will find 
that in following up the arguments you suddenly come upon a 
similar name attached to a hill or land of some sort. Take 
letter m, for instance. This being the first example Pr by 
Mr. MacPherson, it ra 0 well to the name of the river Murrum- 
bidgee, as representing the humming sound of water as it flows 
over stones, &c. But i ia the argument up, and the river 
down, as it increases in importance, and gathers more roots, you 
come upon a hill in the a of Yass ass, and about 15 or 
20 miles from the J wrrumbidgee, named Murru leila ; and so 
you may follow on until the peculiar humming sound of m eul- 
minates in a range of mountains, near Molong, known as the 
<M “ee 
A gain, n, take the Wollondilly River as an example. It is true 
that the Wollondilly is _— by the Mulwarree Ponds at Goul- 
burn, but the “ murmur of the waters” can be only heard in the 
Wollondilly branch, which shiccdeinn the whole length flows 
through a hilly and mountainous country ; whereas the Mulwarree 
is but a long chain of nds rising ina swamp, and flowing only in 
time of flood through marshy land. To follow the reverend cite 
through the long list of references which he gives in su 
theory is more than I dare attempt, even supposing that I felt 
myself competent to do so 
Mr. MacPherson gives (page 17) the word didge as meaning 
water. Mr. de la Poer Wall, in his “ Manual of Physical Geo- 
graphy of Australia,” page 77, describes the name Murrumbidgee 
meaning “ beautiful river.” In connexion with this I may refer 
to the name ‘pesencartar tee Sy This is the native name of a 
small plain or flat on the Shoalhaven River, about 12 miles on the 
aboriginal, kur means a mouth; kur-kur, a long mouth or beak ; 
and kur-kur-due, the bird known by us as the “ native com ” 
This plain was, and probably is now, the resort of this bird; a 
ee: crane, hence the word kur- ker-ducbid-gee. ‘Karkur also: 
a ~~ im that the terminati 
t by the river side; and this shams ll agree with @ 
of the Murrumbidgee River ; but which allan refers 
tear Td not undertake to say. 
