coo-ee

or Cooey

n. and interj.

spelt in various ways. See quotations. A callborrowed from the aborigines and used in the bush by onewishing to find or to be found by another. In the vocabularyof native words in `Hunter's Journal,' published in 1790, wefind «Cow-ee = to come.»

1827. P. Cunningham, `New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 23:

«In calling to each other at a distance, the natives make useof the word Coo-ee, as we do the word Hollo,prolonging the sound of the coo, and closing that of the ee with a shrill jerk. . . . [It has] become of generaluse throughout the colony; and a newcomer, in desiring anindividual to call another back, soon learns to say` Coo-ee' to him, instead of Hollo to him.»

1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 162:

«He immediately called `coo-oo-oo' to the natives at the fire.»

1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 84:

«There yet might be heard the significant ` cooy' or`quhy,' the true import of which was then unknown to our ears.»

1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' p. 46:

«Although Mr. Brown made the woods echo with his `cooys.'»

[See also p. 87, note.]

1845. Clement Hodgkinson, `Australia from Port Macquarie toMoreton Bay,' p. 28:

«We suddenly heard the loud shrill couis of the natives.»

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 231:

«Their cooieys are not always what we understand by the word,viz., a call in which the first note is low and the secondhigh, uttered after sound of the word cooiey. This is a notewhich congregates all together and is used only as a simple`Here.'»

1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 91:

«Like the natives of New South Wales, they called to each otherfrom a great distance by the cooey; a word meaning `cometo me.' The Sydney blacks modulated this cry with successiveinflexions; the Tasmanian uttered it with less art. It is asound of great compass. The English in the bush adopt it: thefirst syllable is prolonged; the second is raised to a higherkey, and is sharp and abrupt.»

1862. W. Landsborough, `Exploration of Australia,' [Footnote]p. 24:

« Coo-oo-oo-y is a shrill treble cry much used in thebush by persons wishful to find each other. On a still nightit will travel a couple of miles, and it is thus highlyserviceable to lost or benighted travellers.»

1869. J. F. Townend, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 155:

«The jingling of bells round the necks of oxen, the cooey ofthe black fellow . . . constituted the music of these desolatedistricts.»

1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 82:

«Hi! . . . cooey! you fella . . . open 'im lid.»

1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 183:

«A particular `cooee' . . . was made known to the young menwhen they were initiated.»

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of the Goldfields,' p. 40:

«From the woods they heard a prolonged cooee, which evidentlyproceeded from some one lost in the bush.»

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 276:

«Two long farewell coo-ees, which died away in the silence ofthe bush.»

1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 184:

«The bride encircled her lips with her two gloved palms,and uttered a cry that few of the hundreds who heard it everforgot – – `coo-ee!' That was the startling cry as nearly asit can be written. But no letters can convey the sustainedshrillness of the long, penetrating note represented by thefirst syllable, nor the weird, die-away wail of the second.It is the well-known bushcall,the `jodel' of the black fellow.»