Austral English Part 112
"As a barbarism, `hillimung-a shield.'"
[A barbarism means with Mr. Threlkeld little more than "not belonging to the Hunter district."]
1839. T. L. Mitch.e.l.l, `Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia,' vol. ii. p. 349:
"There is much originality in the shield or hieleman of these people. It is merely a piece of wood, of little thickness, and two feet, eight inches long, tapering to each end, cut to an edge outwards, and having a handle or hole in the middle, behind the thickest part."
1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1355), p. 102:
"The hieleman or shield is a piece of wood, about two and a half feet long, tapering to the ends, with a bevelled face not more than four inches wide at the broadest part, behind which the left hand pa.s.sing through a hole is perfectly guarded."
1865. S. Bennett, `Australian Discovery,' p. 251:
"Hieleman, a shield. Saxon, heilan; English, helm or helmet (a little shield for the head)."
[This is a remarkable contribution to philological lore. In no dictionary is the Saxon "heilan" to be found, and a misprint may charitably be suspected. There is no doubt that the h is an English c.o.c.kney addition to the aboriginal word.
It would need an ingenious fancy to connect "e-leemong" with "helm."]
1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin, etc.,' p. 26:
"No faint far hearing of the waddies banging Of club and heelaman together clanging, War shouts and universal boomeranging."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 66:
"Nullah-nullahs, paddy-melon sticks, boomerangs, tomahawks, and heelimen or shields lay about in every direction."
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1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 426:
"`Heilaman [sic] tree.' The wood is soft, and used by the aborigines for making their `heilamans' or shields."
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1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,'
vol. ii. p. 317:
"Another export was much talked of. This was the bark of the hinau, a large forest tree which abounds all over the country near Cook's Strait. The natives extract from this bark the black dye for their mats."
1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition':
"Hinau--a white wood used for turner's work."
Ibid.:
"The natives produce the black dye for their flax-work, for which purpose the bark is first bruised and boiled for a short time. When cold the flax is put into the mixture ... it is then steeped thoroughly for two days in red swamp mud, rich in peroxide of iron."
1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 130:
"Hinau, a small tree about fifty feet high and eighteen inches thick in stem, with brown bark which yields a permanent blue-black dye, used for tanning ... used by Maoris for colouring mats and baskets. Wood a yellowish brown colour and close-grained; very durable for fencing and piles."
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1875. R. and F. Hill, `What we Saw in Australia,' p. 264:
"... including so many churches that we are at a loss to understand why Adelaide should, in virtue of her supposed superabundance, be nicknamed by her neighbours the Holy City."
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(q.v.) had been punched.
1822. `Hobart Town Gazette,' Aug. 10 [Proclamation by Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales and its dependencies, then including Van Diemen's Land]
"Whereas in the Year of our Lord 1813, it was deemed expedient to send a Quant.i.ty of Spanish Dollars to the Colony... . And whereas His Excellency, the then Governor, thought proper to direct, that every such Dollar, with a small circular Piece of Silver, struck out of its Centre, should be current within this Territory, and every part thereof, for the Sum of Five Shillings."
[These were called holy (holey) dollars, or ring dollars, though the name does not occur in the above quotation.]
1857. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 59:
"We were more particularly struck with the character and various kinds of currency [in Tasmania in 1833]. Our first change for a pound consisted of two dumps, two holy dollars, one Spanish dollar, one French coin, one half-crown, one shilling, and one sixpence."
, n. name given to various species of Ants, in which the body of certain individuals becomes enormously distended by sweet food with which they are fed by the worker ants, for whom this store of honey serves as a food supply.
When the side of the distended abdomen is tapped, the ant pa.s.ses the `honey' out of its mouth, and it is then eaten.
Three species are known in Australia, Camponotus inflatus, Lubbock; C. cowlei, Froggatt; and C.midas, Froggatt. The aboriginal name of the first is `Yarumpa.'
1896. W. W. Froggatt, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,'
pt. ii. p. 386:
"Our Australian honey ants belong to the genus Camponotus, members of which are found to all parts of the world, and are known as `sugar-ants,' from their fondness for all kinds of sweets."
. See next word.
. an Australian bird, with a tongue specially adapted for being formed into a tube for the absorption of honey from flowers. The name is applied to the following species--
Banded Honey-eater-- Myzomela pectoralis, Gould.
Black H.-- M. nigra, Gould.