LANGUAGE, 
209 
in liopes of picking up much of tbeir language from the 
native we had made prisoner, hut during the time that I 
was absent on an excursion to Port Essington he effected 
his escape. Hia dialect did not sound harsh, and his 
expressions were vcrj' significantj from the gestures with 
which he accompanied them. 
" The follc^ving are some of those expressions : Co 
curdy ; water, give me some water, or I am thirsty. 
HooloOf Iwoioo ; my belly is full, I am not hungry. 
Bnngee ; fire-arm^. No bungeS ; don't fire, Peerce t 
an axe, Paket ; peace, or friendship. Piccanird ; 
chiidren.* 
" I do not think that these islanders ever eroas to the 
coast of New Holland ; for the currents are so rapid in 
Dundas and Clarence Straits, that it would be dangerous 
for their slight canoes ■ and although so close to the 
Cobourg Peninsula, yet the spears of the Melville 
islanders are differently formed from those used by the 
natives of that peninsula, and much heavier, 
" It appears to be the custom of the natives to bury 
* Three of these terms, Bmige^t hun^ei, and Fkcanmi^ are 
used m the same sense by the Fort Essingion natives, but no 
doubt exists aa to their having beea introduced by Europeans. 
Bun0t the TOot of the two first, ia intended to represent the 
report of fire-arma, and the last ia the common term for black 
ehildren among English sailors. The late Sir Gordon Bremer, who 
established the settlement at Melville Island, informed me that 
during their iirst interview with the natives, the greater number of 
them eontmued incessantly repeating the word " Pani-Q" in an ex- 
ceedingly rapid manner, at the same time imitating the process of 
chopping by striking the fore arm with the edge of the other hand 
Puhu ia the Malay term for an iron nail or spike.— G, W. E, 
