Austral English Part 54

"May it remain nailed to the mast until these colonies are emanc.i.p.ated from convictism."

1864. `Realm,' Feb. 24, p.4 (`O.E.D.'):

"No one who has not lived in Australia can appreciate the profound hatred of convictism that obtains there."

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 16:

"They preferred to let things remain as they were, convictism included."

Coobah, n. an aboriginal name for the tree Acacia salicina, Lindl., N.O.Leguminosae. See Acacia. The spellings vary, and sometimes begin with a K.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' v. 46:

"A deep reach of the river, shaded by couba trees and river-oaks."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxviii. p. 400:

"The willowy coubah weeps over the dying streamlet."

Coo-ee, or Cooey, n. and interj. spelt in various ways. See quotations. A call borrowed from the aborigines and used in the bush by one wis.h.i.+ng to find or to be found by another. In the vocabulary of native words in `Hunter's Journal,' published in 1790, we find "Cow-ee = to come."

1827. P. Cunningham, `New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 23:

"In calling to each other at a distance, the natives make use of the word Coo-ee, as we do the word Hollo, prolonging the sound of the coo, and closing that of the ee with a shrill jerk... . [It has] become of general use throughout the colony; and a newcomer, in desiring an individual to call another back, soon learns to say `Coo-ee' to him, instead of Hollo to him."

1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 162:

"He immediately called `coo-oo-oo' to the natives at the fire."

1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 84:

"There yet might be heard the significant `cooy' or `quhy,' the true import of which was then unknown to our ears."

1839. T. L. Mitch.e.l.l, `Three Expeditions,' p. 46:

"Although Mr. Brown made the woods echo with his `cooys.'"

[See also p. 87, note.]

1845. Clement Hodgkinson, `Australia from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay,' p. 28:

"We suddenly heard the loud shrill couis of the natives."

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 231:

"Their cooieys are not always what we understand by the word, viz., a call in which the first note is low and the second high, uttered after sound of the word cooiey. This is a note which congregates all together and is used only as a simple `Here.'"

1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 91:

"Like the natives of New South Wales, they called to each other from a great distance by the cooey; a word meaning `come to me.' The Sydney blacks modulated this cry with successive inflexions; the Tasmanian uttered it with less art. It is a sound of great compa.s.s. The English in the bush adopt it: the first syllable is prolonged; the second is raised to a higher key, and is sharp and abrupt."

1862. W. Landsborough, `Exploration of Australia,' [Footnote]

p. 24:

"Coo-oo-oo-y is a shrill treble cry much used in the bush by persons wishful to find each other. On a still night it will travel a couple of miles, and it is thus highly serviceable to lost or benighted travellers."

1869. J. F. Townend, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 155:

"The jingling of bells round the necks of oxen, the cooey of the black fellow ... const.i.tuted the music of these desolate districts."

1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 82:

"Hi! ... cooey! you fella ... open 'im lid."

1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 183:

"A particular `cooee' ... was made known to the young men when they were initiated."

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of the Goldfields,' p. 40:

"From the woods they heard a prolonged cooee, which evidently proceeded from some one lost in the bush."

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 276:

"Two long farewell coo-ees, which died away in the silence of the bush."

1890. E. W. Hornung, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 184:

"The bride encircled her lips with her two gloved palms, and uttered a cry that few of the hundreds who heard it ever forgot--`coo-ee!' That was the startling cry as nearly as it can be written. But no letters can convey the sustained shrillness of the long, penetrating note represented by the first syllable, nor the weird, die-away wail of the second.

It is the well-known bushcall,the `jodel' of the black fellow."

Cooee, within, adv. within easy distance.

1887. G. L. Apperson, in `All the Year Round,' July 30, p. 67, col. 1 (`O.E.D.'):

"A common mode of expression is to be `within cooey' of a place. ... Now to be `within cooey' of Sydney is to be at the distance of an easy journey therefrom."

1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), June 26, p. 2, col. 6:

"Witness said that there was a post-office clock `within coo-ee,' or within less than half-a-mile of the station."

1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 80:

"Just to camp within a cooey of the Shanty for the night."

Cooee, v.intr. to utter the call.

1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 81:

"Our sable guides `cooed' and `cooed' again, in their usual tone of calling to each other at a distance."