Austral English Part 130

1888. H. S. Cooper, `The Islands of the Pacific,' p. 5:

"The kanakas, who at present populate Hawaii, are, as a rule, well made and intelligent. That there is a cross of the Malay and Indian blood in them few can doubt."

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 64:

"Natives of the South Sea Islands, who in Australia are called kanakas--a capable and intelligent race, especially to this kind of work [on plantations], for they are strong, and endure the tropical heat far better than the whites."

1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compa.s.s in Australia,'

p. 298:

"Thus, it is maintained by the planters, the kanaka, necessary as he is to the conditions of North Queensland, opens up avenues of skilled labour for the European, and makes population and commerce possible where otherwise there would be complete stagnation."

2892. `The Times,' Dec. 28:

"The princ.i.p.al open-air labour of the sugar plantations is furnished by kanakas, who are the native inhabitants of certain groups of South Sea Islands not at present under the protection of any European flag."

1893. R. L. Stevenson, `Island Night's Entertainments,'

p. 41:

"What we want is a man-of-war--a German, if we could--they know how to manage kanakas."

1893. Rudyard Kipling, `Banjo Song':

"We've shouted on seven-ounce nuggets, We've starved on a kanaka's pay."

1893. C. H. Pearson, `National Life and Character,' p.32:

"In Australasia ... the Maori, the Kanaka, and the Papuan are dying out. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that certain weak races--even when, like the kanaka, they possess some very high qualities--seem to wither away at mere contact with the European... . The kanakas (among whom we may include the Maories)."

Kangaroo, n. (1) an aboriginal word.

See Marsupial.

(a) The Origin of the Name. The name was first obtained in 1770, while H.M.S. Endeavour lay beached at the Endeavour River, where Cooktown, Queensland, now is. The name first appears in print in 1773, in the book brought out by the relatives of Mr. Parkinson, who was draughtsman to Banks the naturalist, and who had died on the voyage. The object of this book was to antic.i.p.ate the official account of Cook's Voyage by Hawkesworth, which appeared later in the same year. It is now known that Hawkesworth's book was like a rope twisted of four strands, viz. Cook's journal, the diaries of the two naturalists, Banks and Solander, and quartum quid, the Johnsonian pomposity of Dr. Hawkesworth. Cook's journal was published in 1893, edited by Captain Wharton, hydrographer to the Admiralty; Banks's journal, in 1896, edited by Sir J. D.

Hooker. Solander's journal has never been printed.

When Englishmen next came to Australia in 1788, it was found that the word Kangaroo was not known to the natives round Port Jackson, distant 1500 miles to the South of Cooktown. In fact, it was thought by them to be an English word. (See quotation, Tench, 1789.) It is a question whether the word has belonged to any aboriginal vocabulary since.

"Capt. Philip P. King, the explorer, who visited that locality [sc. Endeavour River] forty-nine years after Cook, relates in his `Narrative of the Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia,' that he found the word kangaroo unknown to the tribe he met there, though in other particulars the vocabulary he compiled agrees very well with Captain Cook's."

(Curr's `Australian Race,' vol. i. p. 27.) In the fourth volume of Curr's book a conspectus is given of the words used in different parts of Australia for various objects. In the list of names for this animal there are a few that are not far from Kangaroo, but some inquirers suspect the accuracy of the list, or fancy that the natives obtained the words sounding like Kangaroo from English. It may be a.s.sumed that the word is not now in use as an aboriginal word. Has it, then, disappeared? or was it an original mistake on the part of Banks or Cook ?

The theory of a mistake has obtained widely. It has figured in print, and finds a place in at least one dictionary. Several correspondents have written that the word Kangaroo meant "I don't understand," and that Banks mistook this for a name.

This is quite possible, but at least some proof is needed, as for instance the actual words in the aboriginal language that could be twisted into this meaning. To find these words, and to hear their true sound, would test how near the explanation hits the mark. Banks was a very careful observer, and he specially notes the precautions he took to avoid any mistake in accepting native words. Moreover, according to Surgeon Anderson, the aborigines of Van Diemen's Land described the animal by the name of Kangaroo. (See quotation, 1787.)

On the other hand, it must be remembered that it is an ascertained fact that the aborigines taboo a word on the death of any one bearing that word as a proper name. (See quotation under n.o.bbler, 1880.) If, therefore, after Cook's visit, some man called Kangaroo died, the whole tribe would expunge Kangaroo from its vocabulary. There is, however, some evidence that the word was much later in use in Western Australia. (See quotation, 1835.)

It is now a.s.serted that the word is in use again at the very part of Queensland where the Endeavour was beached.

Lumholtz, in his `Amongst Cannibals' (p. 311), gives it in his aboriginal vocabulary. Mr. De Vis, of the Brisbane Museum, in his paper before the Geographical Society at Brisbane (1894), says that "in point of fact the word `kangaroo' is the normal equivalent for kangaroo at the Endeavour River; and not only so, it is almost the type-form of a group of variations in use over a large part of Australia." It is curiously hard to procure satisfactory evidence as to the fact. Mr. De Vis says that his first statement was "made on the authority of a private correspondent; "but another correspondent writes from Cooktown, that the blacks there have taken Kangaroo from English. Inquiries inserted in each of the Cooktown newspapers have produced no result. Mr. De Vis' second argument as to the type-form seems much stronger. A spoken language, unwritten, unprinted, must inevitably change, and change rapidly. A word current in 1770 would change rather than disappear, and the root consonants would remain. The letters ng together, followed by r, occur in the proportion of one in thirteen, of the names for the animal tabulated by Curr.

It is a difficult matter on which to speak decidedly, but probably no great mistake was made, and the word received was a genuine name of the animal.

See further the quotations, 1896.

(b) The Plural of the Word.

There seems to be considerable doubt as to the plural of the word, whether it should take s like most English words, or remain unchanged like sheep, deer. In two consecutive pages of one book the two plurals are used. The general use is the plural in s. See 1793 Hunter, 1845 Balfour, and 1880 Senior; sportsmen frequently use the form Kangaroo.

[Since 1888 a kangaroo has been the design on the one-s.h.i.+lling postage stamp of New South Wales.]

1815. `History of New South Wales,' (1818) PP. 460-461:

"Throughout the general course of the journey, kangaroos, emus, ducks, etc. were seen in numbers." "Mr. Evans saw the kangaroo in immense flocks."

1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 49:

"The kangaroos are too subtle and shy for us to get near."

1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 125:

"In the afternoon we saw some kangaroos and wallaby, but did not succeed in killing any."

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. iii. p. 23:

"Though kangaroo were plentiful, they were not overwhelming to number."

(c) Kangaroo in French.

1777. Buffon, `Supplement a l'Histoire Naturelle,' tom. iv.

`Table des Matieres':

"Kanguros, espece de grosse Gerboise qui se trouve dans les terres australes de la Nouvelle Hollande."

1800. J. J. Labillardiere, `Voyage a la recherche de La Perouse,' tom. i. p. 134: [Under date April 24, 1792.]

"Un de nos cha.s.seurs trouva un jeune kangourou sur les bords de la mer."

1880. H. de Charency, `Recherches sur les Dialectes Tasmaniens,' p. 21:

"Kangourou. Ce mot semble d'origine non Australienne, comme on l'a soutenu, mais bien Tasmanienne."

1882. Littre, `Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise' (s.v.):

"Kanguroo ou kangarou. On ecrit aussi kangarou et kangourou."

1882. A. Daudet, `Jack,' p. 131:

Il regardait les kangaroos dresses sur leurs pattes, si longues qu'elles ont l'agilite et l'elan d'une paire d'ailes."

1890. Oscar Comettant [t.i.tle]: