Austral English Part 174

"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 smells like violets)."

(2) adj. and n. wild, wild natives, used especially 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 the local 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 was still at work a considerable distance up the country, at the source of one of the rivers, called by the natives `Myall,'

meaning, in their language, Stranger, or a place which they seldom or never frequent."

1839. T. L. Mitch.e.l.l, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 192:

"This tribe gloried in the name of `Myall,' which the natives nearer to the colony apply in terror and abhorrence to the `wild blackfellows,' to whom they usually attribute the most savage propensities."

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

"Even the wildest of the Myall black fellows--as cannibals usually are--learned to appreciate him."

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

"Words quite as unintelligible to the natives as the corresponding words in the vernacular language of the white men would have been, were learned by the natives, and are now commonly used by them in conversing with Europeans, as English words. Thus corrobbory, the Sydney word for a general a.s.sembly of natives, is now commonly used in that sense at Moreton Bay; but the original word there is yanerwille.

Cabon, great; narang little; boodgeree, good; myall, wild native, etc. etc., are all words of this description, supposed by the natives to be English words, and by the Europeans to be aboriginal words of the language of that district."

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

"A more intimate acquaintance with the ways and customs of the whites had produced a certain amount of contempt for them among the myalls."

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

"I had many conversations with native police officers on 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 long gra.s.s. Armed with spears and boomerangs ..."

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

"These so-called civilized blacks look upon their savage brethren with more or less contempt, and call them myall."

[Footnote]: "A tree (Acacia pendula) which grows extensively in the less civilized districts is called by the Europeans myall. This word was soon applied by the whites as a term for the wild blacks who frequented these large remote myall woods. Strange to say, the blacks soon adopted this term themselves, and used it as an epithet of abuse, and hence it soon came to mean a person of no culture."

1893. M. Gaunt, `English Ill.u.s.trated,' March, p. 367:

"He himself had no faith in the myall blacks; they were treacherous, they were cruel."

(3) By transference, wild cattle.

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

"To secure these myalls we took down sixty or seventy head of quiet cows, as dead homers as carrier pigeons, some of them milking cows, with their calves penned up in the stockyard."

Myrmecobius, n. scientific name of the Australian genus with only one species, called the Banded Ant-eater (q.v.). (Grk. murmaex, an ant, and bios life.)

Myrtle, n. The true Myrtle, Myrtus communis, is a native of Asia, but has long been naturalised in Europe, especially on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. The name is applied to many genera of the family, N.O. Myrtaceae, and has been transferred to many other trees not related to that order. In Australia the name, with various epithets, is applied to the following trees--

Backhousia citriodora, F. v. M., N.O. Myrtaceae, called the Scrub Myrtle and Native Myrtle.

Backhousia myrtifolia, Hook. and Herv., N.O. Myrtaceae, called Scrub Myrtle, or Native Myrtle, or Grey Myrtle, and also Lancewood.

Diospyrus pentamera, F. v. M., N.O. Ebenaceae, the Black Myrtle and Grey Plum of Northern New South Wales.

Eugenia myrtifolia, Sims, N.O. Myrtaceae, known as Native Myrtle, Red Myrtle and Brush Cherry.

Eugenia ventenatii, Benth., N.O. Myrtaceae, the Drooping Myrtle or Large-leaved Water-gum.

Melaleuca decussata, R. Br., N.O. Myrtaceae.

Melaleuca genistifolia, Smith, N.O. Myrtaceae, which is called Ridge Myrtle, and in Queensland Ironwood.

Myoporum serratum, R. Br., N.O. Myoporineae, which is called Native Myrtle; and also called Blue-berry Tree, Native Currant, Native Juniper, c.o.c.katoo-Bush, and by the aborigines Palberry.

Myrtus acmenioides, F. v. M., N.O. Myrtaceae, which is the White Myrtle of the Richmond and Clarence Rivers (New South Wales), and is also called Lignum-vitae.

Rhod.a.m.nia argentea, Benth., N.O. Myrtaceae, called White Myrtle, the Muggle-muggle of the aboriginals of Northern New South Wales.

Syncarpia leptopetala, F. v. M., N.O. Myrtaceae, which is called Myrtle and also Brush-Turpentine.

Tristania neriifolia, R. Br., N.O. Myrtaceae, called Water Myrtle, and also Water Gum.

Trochocarpa laurina, R. Br., N.O. Epacrideae, called Brush-Myrtle, Beech and Brush Cherry.

In Tasmania, all the Beeches are called Myrtles, and there are extensive forests of the Beech f.a.gus cunninghamii, Hook., which is invariably called "Myrtle"

by the colonists of Tasmania.

1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 206:

Table of Tasmanian Woods.

Hgt. Dia. Where found. Use.

ft. in.