tomahawk

I.

n.

a word of North-American Indianorigin, applied in English to the similarly shaped shortone-handed axe or hatchet. The word is not frequent inEngland, but in Australia the word hatchet haspractically disappeared, and the word Tomahawk todescribe it is in every-day use. It is also applied to thestone hatchet of the Aboriginals. A popular corruption of itis Tommy-axe.

1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. xii.p. 466:

«A plentiful assortment of . . . knives, shirts, toma-hawkes[sic], axes, jackets, scissars [sic], etc., etc., for thepeople in general.»

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 259:

«We . . . observed recent marks of the stone tomahawkof the natives.»

1851. G. W. Rusden, `Moyarra,' canto i. 17, p. 25:

«One hand he wreathed in Mytah's hair,

Whirled then the tomahawk in air.»

1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Fours /sic/ Years in Queensland,' p. 721:

«They [the Aboriginals] cut out opossums from a tree or sugarbag (wild honey) by means of a tomahawk of green stone; thehandle is formed of a vine, and fixed in its place with gum.It is astonishing what a quantity of work is got through in theday with these blunt tomahawks.»

1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 60:

«Lay aside thy spears (I doubt them);

Lay aside thy tomahawk.»

1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 206:

«The aborigines have obtained iron tomahawks.»

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 73:

«Men had to cleave out a way for themselves with tomahawks.»

1888. A. Reischek, in Buller's `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii.p. 94:

«The snow had been blown together, and was frozen so hard thatI had to take my tomahawk to chop it down so as to get softersnow to refresh myself with a wash.»

II.

v. tr.

to cut sheep when shearingthem.

1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 147:

«Shearers were very scarce, and the poor sheep got fearfully`tomahawked' by the new hands.»

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 96:

«Some men never get the better of this habit, but `tomahawk'as badly after years of practice as when they first began.»

1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 162:

«The Shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong,

After the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along

The `ringer' that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn before,

And the novice who toiling bravely had tommyhawked half a score.»