Austral English Part 132

Ibid. p. 402:

"In rowing up this branch, we saw a flock of about thirty kangaroos or paderong, but they were only visible during their leaps, as the very long gra.s.s hid them from our view."

1809. G. Shaw, `Zoological Lectures,' vol. i. p. 94:

"The genus Macropus or kangaroo ... one of the most elegant as well as curious animals discovered in modern times."

[Under the picture and in list of contents: Kanguroo.]

1814. M. Flinders, `Voyage to Terra Australis,' Introd.

p. lxiii:

"An animal found upon one of the islands is described [by Dampier, `Voyage to New Holland,' vol. iii. p. 123] as `a sort of racc.o.o.n, different from that of the West Indies, chiefly as to the legs; for these have very short fore legs; but go jumping upon them' [not upon the short fore, but the long hind legs, it is to be presumed] `as the others do; and like them are very good meat.' This appears to have been the small kangaroo, since found upon the islands which form the road; and if so, this description is probably the first ever made of that singular animal" [though without the name].

1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,'

p. 57:

"Coursing the kangaroo and emu forms the princ.i.p.al amus.e.m.e.nt of the sporting part of the colonists.

(p. 68): The colonists generally pursue this animal [kangaroo]

at full speed on horseback, and frequently manage, notwithstanding its extraordinary swiftness, to be up at the death."

1833. Charles Lamb, `Essays of Elia' [edition 1895], p. 151, `Distant Correspondents':

"The kangaroos--your Aborigines--do they keep their primitive simplicity un-Europe-tainted, with those little short fore puds, looking like a lesson framed by nature to the pick-pocket! Marry, for diving into fobs they are rather lamely provided a priori; but if the hue and cry were once up, they would show as fair a pair of hind-shifters as the expertest loco motor in the colony."

1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. I. c. iii. p. 106:

"Those that were noticed were made of the red kangaroo-skin."

1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar of the Language spoken by the Aborigines, at Hunter's River,' p. 87:

"Kong-go-rong, The Emu, from the noise it makes, and likely the origin of the barbarism, kangaroo, used by the English, as the name of an animal, called Mo-a-ne."

1835. T. B. Wilson, `Narrative of a Voyage round the World, etc.' p. 212:

"They [natives of the Darling Range, W.A.] distinctly p.r.o.nounced `kangaroo' without having heard any of us utter that sound: they also called it waroo, but whether they distinguished `kangaroo' (so called by us, and also by them) from the smaller kind, named `wallabi,' and by them `waroo,' we could not form any just conclusion."

1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 23:

"Kangaroos are of six different species, viz. the forester, the flyer, the wallaby, the wallaroo, the kangaroo-rat, and the kangaroo-mouse."

[This is of course merely a popular cla.s.sification.]

1845. J. A. Moore, `Tasmanian Rhymings,' p. 15:

"A kangaroo, like all his race, Of agile form and placid face."

1861. W. M. Thackeray, `Roundabout Papers', p.83:

"The fox has brought his brush, and the c.o.c.k has brought his comb, and the elephant has brought his trunk and the kangaroo has brought his bag, and the condor his old white wig and black satin hood."

1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 8:

"To return to the marsupials. I have been a.s.sured that the kangaroos come first and eat off the gra.s.s; that the wallabies, following, grub up the roots."

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 114:

"Sometimes a kangaroo would come down with measured thud, thud, and drink, and then return without noticing the human beings."

1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 118:

"According to the traditions of the bush--not always reliable--the name of kangaroo was given under a misconception.

An aborigine being asked by one of the early discoverers the name of the animal, replied, `Kangaroo' (`I don't know'), and in this confession of ignorance or misapprehension the name originated. It seems absurd to suppose that any black hunter was really ignorant of the name of an animal which once represented the national wealth of Australians as the merino does to-day."

[The tradition is not quite so ridiculous, if the answer meant--"I don't know what you mean,--I don't understand you."

See above.]

1891. `Guide Zoological Gardens, Melbourne':

"In this enclosure is a wooden model of a kangaroo of ancient times. This is copied from a restoration by Professor McCoy, who was enabled to represent it from fossil remains which have been unearthed at various places in Australia."

1896. E. Meston, `Sydney Bulletin,' April 18:

"The origin of the word `kangaroo' was published by me six years ago. Captain Cook got it from the Endeavor River blacks, who p.r.o.nounce it to-day exactly as it is spelled in the great navigator's journal, but they use it now only for the big toe.

Either the blacks in Cook's time called the kangaroo `big toe'

for a nick-name, as the American Indians speak of the `big horn,' or the man who asked the name of the animal was holding it by the hind foot, and got the name of the long toe, the black believing that was the part to which the question referred."

1896. Rev. J. Mathew, Private Letter, Aug. 31:

"Most names of animals in the Australian dialects refer to their appearance, and the usual synthesis is noun + adjective; the word may be worn down at either end, and the meaning lost to the native mind.

"A number of the distinct names for kangaroo show a relation to words meaning respectively nose, leg, big, long, either with noun and adjective to combination or one or other omitted.

"The word kangaroo is probably a.n.a.lysable into ka or kang, nose (or head), and goora, long, both words or local equivalents being widely current."

(2) Wild young cattle (a special use)--

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.

p. 290:

"A stockyard under six feet high will be leaped by some of these kangaroos (as we term them) with the most perfect ease, and it requires to be as stout as it is high to resist their rushes against it."

(3) Used playfully, and as a nickname for persons and things Australian. An Australian boy at an English school is frequently called "Kangaroo." It is a Stock Exchange nickname for shares in Western Australian gold-mining companies.

1896. `Nineteenth Century' (Nov.), p. 711:

"To the 80,000,000 Westralian mining shares now in existence the Stock Exchange has long since conceded a special `market'; and it has even conferred upon these stocks a nickname--the surest indication of importance and popularity. And that `Kangaroos,' as they were fondly called, could boast of importance and popularity n.o.body would dare to gainsay."

(4) A kind of chair, apparently from the shape.