The name 'emu' has an interesting history. It occurs in the forms 'emia'
and 'eme' in _Purchas his Pilgrimage_, in 1613. 'In Banda and other
islands,' says Purchas, 'the bird called emia or eme is admirable.' We
should probably pronounce 'eme' in two syllables, as e-mé. This eme or
emia was doubtless a cassowary--probably that of Ceram. The idea that it
was a native of the Banda Group appears to have existed in some quarters
at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but the idea was assuredly
an erroneous one. So large a struthious bird as the cassowary requires
more extensive feeding-grounds and greater seclusion than was to be
found in any island of the Banda Group, and, as at the present day so in
the past, Ceram was the true home of the Malayan cassowary, which found
and which finds in the extensive forests of that island the home adapted
to its requirements. It is, however, equally certain that at an early
date the Ceram cassowary was imported into Amboyna and probably into
Banda also, and we know of an early instance of its being introduced
into Java, and from Java into Europe. When the first Dutch expedition to
Java had reached that island, and when the vessels of which it was
composed were lying at anchor off Sindaya, some Javans brought a
cassowary on board Schellenger's ship as a gift, saying that the bird
was a rare one and that it swallowed fire. At least, so they were
understood to say, but that they really did say so is somewhat doubtful.
However, the sailors put the matter to the test by administering to the
bird a dose of hollands; perhaps the hollands was ignited and
administered in the form of liquid fire, but it is not expressly stated
that this was the case. This cassowary was brought alive to Amsterdam in
1597, and was presented to the Estates of Holland at the Hague.[6] A
figure of it, under the name 'eme,' appears in the fourth and fifth
German editions of the account of this voyage of the Dutch to Java, by
Hulsius, published at Frankfort in 1606 and 1625. The figure is a fairly
accurate representation of an immature cassowary.
Whence comes, let us ask, the name 'eme' and the later form, 'emu.' The
_New Historical English Dictionary_ suggests a derivation from a
Portuguese word, 'ema,' signifying a crane. But no authority is quoted
to prove that ema signifies, or ever signified, crane. On the other
hand, various Portuguese dictionaries which have been consulted render
'ema' by 'casoar,' or state that the name 'ema' is applicable to several
birds, of which the crane is not one. Pero de Magalhães de Gandavo, in
his _Historia da Provincia Sancta Cruz_, published in 1576, uses the
name 'hema' in writing of the rhea or nandu.
It is worthy of note that the Arabic name of the cassowary is 'neâma',
and that there were many Arab traders in the Malayan Archipelago at the
time when the Portuguese first navigated it. The Portuguese strangely
distorted Malay and Arabic names, and it would not be surprising if they
reproduced 'neâma' as 'uma ema.'
[6] Salvadori, referring to _Hist. Gen. de Voy._ VIII. p. 112, states
that the Cassowary which was brought alive to Europe by the Dutch
in 1597 belonged first to Count Solms van Gravenhage, then to the
Elector Ernest van Keulen, and finally to the Emperor Rudolph II.
_Ornit. della Papuasia e delle Molucche._ III. p. 481.
[Illustration: Abris des wvnderbaren vogels Eme: The Eme]