warrigal

n.

and adj. an aboriginalword, originally meaning a Dog. Afterwards extended as anadjective to mean wild; then used for a wildhorse, wild natives, and in bush-slang for aworthless man. The following five quotations from vocabulariesprove the early meaning of the word in the Port Jacksondistrict, and its varying uses at later dates elsewhere.

1793. Governor Hunter, `Port Jackson,' p. 411:

«Warregal – – a large dog.»

1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New SouthWales,' p. 614 [Vocab.]:

«Wor-re-gal – – dog.»

1859. D. Bunce, `Language of Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 17:

«Ferocious, savage, wild – – warragul.» (adj.)

Ibid. p. 46:

«Wild savage – – worragal.» (noun.) 1879.

Wyatt, `Manners of Adelaide Tribes,' p. 21:

«Warroo=wild.»

The quotations which follow are classed under the differentmeanings borne by the word.

1) A Wild Dog.

1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 153:

«I have heard that the dingo, warragal or native dog,does not hunt in packs like the wolf and jackal.»

1880. J. Holdsworth, `Station Hunting':

«To scoop its grassless grave

Past reach of kites and prowling warrigals.»

1887. `Illustrated Australian News,' March 5:

[A picture of two dingoes, and beneath them the followingquotation from Kendall – – ]:

«The warrigal's lair is pent in bare

Black rocks, at the gorge's mouth.»

1888. `Australian Ballads and Rhymes' (edition Sladen),,p. 297:

«The following little poem, entitled `The Warrigal' (Wild Dog)will prove that he (H. Kendall) observed animal life asfaithfully as still life and landscape:

`The sad marsh-fowl and the lonely owl

Are heard in the fog-wreath's grey,

Where the Warrigal wakes, and listens and takes

To the woods that shelter the prey.'»

1890. G. A. Sala, in `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 1:

«But at present warrigal means a wild dog.»

1891. J. B. O`Hara, `Songs of the South,' p. 22:

«There, night by night, I heard the call

The inharmonious warrigal

Made, when the darkness swiftly drew

Its curtains o'er the starry blue.»

2) A Horse.

1881. `The Australasian,' May 21, p. 647, col. 4 [«How weran in `The Black Warragal'» : Ernest G. Millard, Bimbowrie,South Australia]:

«You must let me have Topsail today, Boss,.

If we're going for that Warrigal mob.»

1888. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 44:

«Six wild horses – – warrigals or brombies, as they arecalled – – have been driven down, corralled, and caught.They have fed on the leaves of the myall and stray bits ofsalt-bush. After a time they are got within the traces.They are all young, and they look not so bad.»

1890. `The Argus, `June 14, p.4, col. 2:

«Mike will fret himself to death in a stable, and maybe killthe groom. Mike's a warrigal he is.»

3) Applied to Aborigines. [See Bunce quotation, 1859.]

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xii. p. 249:

«He's a good shot, and these warrigal devils know it.»

1896. Private Letter from Station near Palmerville, NorthQueensland:

«Warrigal. In this Cook district, and I believe in manyothers, a blackfellow who has broken any of the most stringenttribal laws, which renders him liable to be killed on sight bycertain other blacks, is warri, an outlaw.»

4) As adjective meaning wild.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. viii. p. 68:

«Here's a real good wholesome cabbage – – warrigal cabbage theshepherds call it.»