Austral English Part 277

"The word `waddie,' though commonly applied to the weapons of the New South Wales aborigines, does not with them mean any particular implement, but is the term used to express wood of any kind, or trees. `You maan waddie 'long of fire,' means `Go and fetch firewood.'"

1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 17:

"The Lachlan black, who, with his right hand full of spears, his whaddie and heleman in his left, was skipping in the air, shouting his war cry."

185o. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849,' p. 54:

"A waddy, a most formidable bludgeon."

1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 101:

"The waddy is a heavy, k.n.o.bbed club about two feet long, and is used for active service, foreign or domestic. It brains the enemy in the battle, or strikes senseless the poor gin in cases of disobedience or neglect."

1864. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45, `The Bulla Bulla Bunyip':

"The landlord swore to the apparition of a huge blackfellow flouris.h.i.+ng a phantasmal `waddy.'"

1879. C. W. Schuermann, `Native Tribes of Australia--Port Lincoln Tribe,' p. 214:

"The wirris, by the whites incorrectly named waddies, are also made of gum saplings; they are eighteen inches in length, and barely one inch in diameter, the thin end notched in order to afford a firm hold for the hand, while towards the other end there is a slight gradual bend like that of a sword; they are, however, without k.n.o.bs, and every way inferior to the wirris of the Adelaide tribes. The natives use this weapon princ.i.p.ally for throwing at kangaroo-rats or other small animals."

1886. R. Henty, `Australiana,' p. 18:

"The `waddy' is a powerful weapon in the hands of the native.

With unerring aim he brings down many a bird, and so materially a.s.sists in replenis.h.i.+ng the family larder."

1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 74:

"A general name for all Australian clubs is `waddy,' and, although they are really clubs, they are often used as missiles in battle."

(2) The word is sometimes used for a walking-stick.

Waddy, v. trans. to strike with a waddy.

1855. Robert Lowe (Viscount Sherbrooke), `Songs of the Squatters,' canto ii. st. 7:

"When the white thieves had left me, the black thieves appeared, My shepherds they waddied, my cattle they speared."

1869. `Victorian Hansard,' Nov. 18, vol. ix. p. 2310, col. 2:

"They were tomahawking them, and waddying them, and breaking their backs."

1882. A. Tolmer, `Reminiscences,' p. 291:

"In the scuffle the native attempted to waddy him."

1893. `The Argus,' April 8, p. 4, col. 3:

"Only three weeks before he had waddied his gin to death for answering questions asked her by a blacktracker."

1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 45:

"For they waddied one another, till the plain was strewn with dead, While the score was kept so even that they neither got ahead."

Waddy Wood, or White Wood, n. name given in Tasmania to the tree Pittosporum bicolor, Hook., N.O. Pittosporeae; from which the aboriginals there chiefly made their Waddies.

1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 156:

"11th October, 1848... a sample of a very fine close-grained white timber, considered by him suitable for wood-engraving purposes, obtained in a defile of Mount Wellington. It seems to be the young wood of Pittosporum bicolor, formerly in high estimation amongst the Aborigines of Tasmania, on account of its combined qualities of density, hardness, and tenacity, as the most suitable material of which to make their warlike implement the waddie."

Wagtail, or Wagtail Fly-catcher, n.

an Australian bird, Rhipidura tricolor, the Black-and-white Fantail, with black-and-white plumage like a pied wagtail. See also quotation, 1896. The name is applied sometimes in Gippsland, and was first used in Western Australia as a name for the Black-and-white Fantail.

See Fantail.

1885. R. M. Praed, `Head-Station,' p. 24:

"He pointed to a w.i.l.l.y-wagtail which was hopping cheerfully from stone to stone."

1896. A. J. North, `List of the Insectivorous Birds of New South Wales,' pt i. p. 13:

"Salltoprocta motacilloides, Vig. and Horsf. `Black and White Fantail.' `Water Wagtail.'... From this bird's habit of constantly swaying its lengthened tail feathers from side to side it is locally known in many districts as the `w.i.l.l.y Wagtail.'"

Wahine, n. Maori word for a woman.

The i is long.

1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i.

p. 29:

"Having enquired how many (wives) the Kings of England had, he laughed heartily at finding they were not so well provided, and repeatedly counted `four wahine' (women) on his fingers."

1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 289:

"A group of whyenees and piccaninnies."

1893. `Otago Witness,' Dec. 21, p. 11, col. 5:

"It is not fit that a daughter of the great tribe should be the slave-wife of the pakeha and the slave of the white wahine."

Waipiro, n. Maori name for spirits,-- literally, stinking water, from piro, stinking, and wai, water. In New Zealand geography, the word Wai is very common as the first part of many names of harbours, lakes, etc. Compare North-American Indian Fire-water.

1845. W. Brown, `New Zealand and its Inhabitants,' p. 132:

"Another native keeps a grog-shop, and sells his waipero, as he says, to Hourangi drunken pakehas."

1863. F. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `Old New Zealand,' p. 169:

"He would go on sh.o.r.e, in spite of every warning, to get some water to mix with his waipiro, and was not his canoe found next day floating about with his paddle and two empty case bottles in it?"