Austral English Part 175

Scented Myrtle 15 6 Low, marshy Seldom used

Red " 40 12 Swampy As pine

White " 20 9 Low, marshy House-carpentry

Yellow " 20 9 " " do.

Brown " 20 30 " " do. and joiners' planes

N

Nailrod, n. a coa.r.s.e dark tobacco smoked by bushmen. The name alludes to the shape of the plug, which looks like a thin flat stick of liquorice. It is properly applied to the imported brand of "Two Seas," but is indiscriminately used by up-country folk for any coa.r.s.e stick of tobacco.

1896. H. Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 118:

"`You can give me half-a-pound of nailrod,' he said, in a quiet tone.'"

Nail-tailed Wallaby, n. See Onychogale.

Namma hole, n. a native well. Namma is an aboriginal word for a woman's breast.

1893. `The Australasian,' August 5, p. 252, col. 4:

"The route all the way from York to Coolgardie is amply watered, either `namma holes' native wells) or Government wells being plentiful on the road."

1896. `The Australasian,' March 28, p. 605, col. 1:

"The blacks about here [far west of N.S.W.] use a word nearly resembling `namma' in naming waterholes, viz., `numma,'

p.r.o.nounced by them `ngumma,' which means a woman's breast. It is used in conjunction with other words in the native names of some waterholes in this district, e.g., `Tirrangumma' = Gum-tree breast; and ngumma-tunka' = breast-milk, the water in such case being always milky in appearance. In almost all native words beginning with n about here the first n has the ng sound as above."

Nancy, n. a Tasmanian name for the flower Anguillaria (q.v.).

Nankeen Crane, or Nankeen Bird, or Nankeen Night Heron, n. the Australian bird Nycticorax caledonicus, Gmel. Both the Nankeen Bird and the Nankeen Hawk are so called from their colour. Nankeen is "a Chinese fabric, usually buff, from the natural colour of a cotton grown in the Nanking district" of China. (`Century.')

1838. James, `Six Months in South Australia, p. 202:

"After shooting one or two beautiful nankeen birds."

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 121:

"The nankeen crane (Nycticorax caledonicus), a very handsome bright nankeen-coloured bird with three long white feathers at the back of the neck, very good eating."

Nankeen Gum. See Gum.

Nankeen Hawk, n. an Australian bird, Tinnunculus cenchroides, Vig. and Hors., which is otherwise called Kestrel (q.v.).

1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of the Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 184:

"`This bird,' as we are informed by Mr. Caley, `is called Nankeen Hawk by the settlers. It is a migratory species.'"

Nannygai, n. aboriginal name for an Australian fish, Beryx affinis, Gunth.

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,'

p. 52:

"Amongst the early colonists it used also to be called `mother nan a di,' probably a corruption of the native name, mura ngin a gai."

1884. E. P. Ramsay, `Fisheries Exhibition Literature,' vol. v.

p. 308:

"Known among the fishermen of Port Jackson as the `nannagai,'

or as it is sometimes spelt `nannygy.' It is a most delicious fish, always brings a high price, but is seldom found in sufficient numbers."

Nardoo, or Nardu, n. aboriginal word for the sporocarp of a plant, Marsilea quadrifolia, Linn., used as food by the aboriginals, and sometimes popularly called Clover-fern. The explorers Burke and Wills vainly sought the means of sustaining life by eating flour made from the spore-cases of nardoo. "Properly Ngardu in the Cooper's Creek language (Yantruwunta)." (A. W. Howitt.) Cooper's Creek was the district where Burke and Wills perished.

In South Australia Ardoo is said to be the correct form.

1861. `Diary of H. J. Wills, the Explorer,' quoted in Brough Smyth's `Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 216:

"I cannot understand this nardoo at all; it certainly will not agree with me in any form. We are now reduced to it alone, and we manage to get from four to five pounds a day between us.

... It seems to give us no nutriment... . Starvation on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the weakness one feels and the utter inability to move oneself, for, as far as appet.i.te is concerned, it gives me the greatest satisfaction."

1862. Andrew Jackson, `Burke and the Australian Exploring Expedition of 1860,' p. 186:

"The [wheaten] flour, fifty pounds of which I gave them, they at once called `whitefellow nardoo,' and they explained that they understood that these things were given to them for having fed King."

1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 247:

"They now began to inquire of the blacks after the nardoo seed, imagining it the produce of a tree; and received from the natives some of their dried narcotic herbs, which they chew, called pitchery. They soon found the nardoo seed in abundance, on a flat, and congratulated themselves in the idea that on this they could subsist in the wilderness, if all other food failed, a hope in which they were doomed to a great disappointment."

1877. F. von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 130:

"Of Marsiliaceae we have well known examples in the nardoo (Marsilea quadrifolia, with many varieties), the foliage resembling that of a clover with four leaflets."

1878. R. Brough Smyth, `Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 209:

"They seem to have been unacquainted generally with the use, as a food, of the clover-fern, Nardoo, though the natives of the North Western parts of Victoria must have had intercourse with the tribes who use it, and could have obtained it, sparingly, from the lagoons in their own neighbourhood."

1879. J. D. Wood, `Native Tribes of South Australia,' p. 288:

"Ardoo, often described by writers as Nardoo. A very hard seed, a flat oval of about the size of a pea. It is crushed for food."

1879 (about). `Queensland Bush Song':

"Hurrah for the Roma Railway!

Hurrah for Cobb and Co.!