mutton-fish

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n.


a marine univalve mollusc, Haliotis naevosa, Martyn: so called from its flavourwhen cooked. The empty earshell of Haliotis , especiallyin New Zealand, Haliotis iris, Martyn, is known as Venus' Ear; Maori name, Paua (q.v.). A speciesof the same genus is known and eaten at the Cape and in theChannel Islands. (French name Ormer, sc. Oreillede mer.)

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish and Fisheries of NewSouth Wales,' p. 92:

«Then mutton fish were speared. This is the ear-shell fish( Haliotis naevosa), which was eagerly bought by theChinese merchants. Only the large muscular sucking disc onfoot is used. Before being packed it is boiled and dried.About 9d. per lb. was given.»

Myall, n. and adj. aboriginal word with twodifferent meanings; whether there is any connection betweenthem is uncertain.

1) n. An acacia tree, Acacia pendula, A. Cunn.,and its timber. Various species have special epithets: Bastard, Dalby, True, Weeping, etc.

1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 38:

«The myall-tree ( Acacia pendula) is the most picturesquetree of New South Wales. The leaves have the appearance ofbeing frosted, and the branches droop like the weepingwillow. . . . Its perfume is as delightful, and nearly asstrong, as sandal-wood.»

(p. 10): «They poison the fish by means of a sheet of barkstripped from the Myall-tree ( Acacia pendula).»

1846. T. L. Mitchell, Report quoted by J. D. Lang,`Cooksland,' p. 495:

«The myall-tree and salt-bush, Acacia pendula and salsolae [sic], so essential to a good run, are alsothere.»

1864. J. S. Moore, `Spring Life Lyrics,' p. 170:

«The guerdon's won! What may it be?

A grave beneath a myall-tree.»

1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discoveryand Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 193 [Note]:

«This acacia, which has much the habit of the weeping willow,is found very extensively on the wet, alluvial flats of thewest rivers. It sometimes forms scrubs and thickets, whichgive a characteristic appearance to the interior of this partof Australia, so that, once seen, it can never be againmistaken for scenery of any other country in the world. Themyall scrubs are nearly all of Acacia pendula.»

1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 280:

«The myall-wood weapons made at Liverpool Plains wereexchanged with the coast natives for others.»

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 46:

« Lignum-vitae and bastard-myall bushes were verycommon.»

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 115:

«Weeping or true Myall. . . . Stock are very fond of theleaves of this tree [ Acacia pendula], especially inseasons of drought, and for this reason, and because they eatdown the seedlings, it has almost become exterminated in partsof the colonies.»

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' p. 27:

«A strip of the swaying, streaming myall, of a colour moreresembling blue than black.»

1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2:

«The soft and silvery grace of the myalls.»

1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 50:

«Miall, a wood having a scent similar to raspberry jam,and very hard and well-grained.»

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 130:

«Stock-whips with myall handles (the native wood that smellslike violets).»

2) adj. and n. wild, wild natives, usedespecially in Queensland. The explanation given by Lumholtz(1890) is not generally accepted. The word mail,or myall, is the aboriginal term for «men,» on the Bogan,Dumaresque, and Macintyre Rivers in New South Wales. It is thelocal equivalent of the more common form murrai.

1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 41:

«On my arrival I learnt from the natives that one party wasstill at work a considerable distance up the country, at thesource of one of the rivers, called by the natives `Myall,'meaning, in their language, Stranger, or a place which theyseldom or never frequent.»

1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 192:

«This tribe gloried in the name of `Myall,' which the nativesnearer to the colony apply in terror and abhorrence to the`wild blackfellows,' to whom they usually attribute the mostsavage propensities.»

1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' Aug. i, p. 4, col. 4:

«Even the wildest of the Myall black fellows – – as cannibalsusually are – – learned to appreciate him.»

1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 447:

«Words quite as unintelligible to the natives as thecorresponding words in the vernacular language of the white menwould have been, were learned by the natives, and are nowcommonly used by them in conversing with Europeans, as Englishwords. Thus corrobbory, the Sydney word for a generalassembly of natives, is now commonly used in that sense atMoreton Bay; but the original word there is yanerwille. Cabon, great; narang little; boodgeree,good; myall, wild native, etc. etc., are all words ofthis description, supposed by the natives to be English words,and by the Europeans to be aboriginal words of the language ofthat district.»

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 171:

«A more intimate acquaintance with the ways and customs of thewhites had produced a certain amount of contempt for them amongthe myalls.»

1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 209:

«I had many conversations with native police officerson the subject of the amelioration of the wild myalls.»

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 150:

«Suddenly he became aware that half-a-dozen of these `myalls,'as they are called, were creeping towards him through the longgrass. Armed with spears and boomerangs . . .»

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 76:

«These so-called civilized blacks look upon their savagebrethren with more or less contempt, and call them myall.»

[Footnote]: «A tree ( Acacia pendula) which growsextensively in the less civilized districts is called by theEuropeans myall. This word was soon applied by thewhites as a term for the wild blacks who frequented these largeremote myall woods. Strange to say, the blacks soonadopted this term themselves, and used it as an epithet ofabuse, and hence it soon came to mean a person of no culture.»

1893. M. Gaunt, `English Illustrated,' March, p. 367:

«He himself had no faith in the myall blacks; they weretreacherous, they were cruel.»

3) By transference, wild cattle.

1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4, `Getting in theScrubbers':

«To secure these myalls we took down sixty or seventy head ofquiet cows, as dead homers as carrier pigeons, some of themmilking cows, with their calves penned up in the stockyard.»

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

← mutton-bird tree   ×   myrmecobius →

Related Words