Of Books--_Austral English

1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 72:

"If it was in your mob of books, give this copy to somebody

that would appreciate it."

More generally--

1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 20:

"A number of cattle together is here usually termed a `mob,'

and truly their riotous and unruly demeanour renders the

designation far from inapt; but I was very much amused at

first, to hear people gravely talking of `a mob of sheep,'

or `a mob of lambs,' and it was some time ere I became

accustomed to the novel use of the word. Now, the common

announcements that `the cuckoo hen has brought out a rare mob

of chickens,' or that `there's a great mob of quail in the big

paddock,' are to me fraught with no alarming anticipations."

1853. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia,' p. 114:

"`There will be a great mob of things going down to-day,' said

one to another, which meant that there would be a heavy cargo

in number; we must remember that the Australians have a patois

of their own."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xiii. p. 135:

"What a mob of houses, people, cabs, teams, men, women and

children!"

<hw>Mocking-bird</hw>, n. The name is given in

Australia to the Lyre-bird (q.v.), and in New Zealand

to the Tui (q.v.).

<hw>Mock-Olive</hw>, n. a tree. Called also

Axe-breaker (q.v.).

<hw>Mock-Orange</hw>, n. an Australian tree,

i.q. Native Laurel. See Laurel.

<hw>Mogo</hw>, n. the stone hatchet of the aborigines

of New South Wales.

1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 204:

"I heard from the summit the mogo of a native at work on some

tree close by."

1868. W. Carleton, `Australian Nights,' p. 20:

"One mute memorial by his bier,

His mogo, boomerang, and spear."

<hw>Moguey</hw>, n. English corruption of Mokihi

(q.v.).

1871. C. L. Money, `Knocking About in New Zealand,' p. 52:

"Moguey, a Maori name for a raupo or flax-stick raft."

<hw>Moki</hw>, n. the Maori name for the Bastard

Trumpeter (q.v.) of New Zealand, Latris ciliaris,

Forst., family Cirrhitidae.

1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand'

(Church Missionary Society), p. 182:

"Moki, s. A fish so called."

<hw>Mokihi</hw>, or <hw>Moki</hw>, n. Maori name

for a raft; sometimes anglicised as Moguey.

1840. J. S. Polack, `Manners and Customs of New Zealanders,'

vol. ii. p. 226:

"In the absence of canoes, a quantity of dried bulrushes are

fastened together, on which the native is enabled to cross a

stream by sitting astride and paddling with his hands; these

humble conveyances are called moki, and resemble those made use

of by the Egyptians in crossing among the islands of the Nile.

They are extremely buoyant, and resist saturation for a longer

period."

1858. `Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,'

c. iii. p. 18:

"We crossed the river on mokis. By means of large mokis,

carrying upwards of a ton. . . . Moki navigation."

1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 82:

"For the benefit of the unlearned in such matters, let me here

explain that a `Mokihi' is constructed of Koradies,

Anglice, the flowering stalks of the flax,--three

faggots of which lashed firmly in a point at the small ends,

and expanded by a piece of wood at the stern, constitute the

sides and bottom of the frail craft, which, propelled by a

paddle, furnishes sufficient means of transport for a single

individual."

<hw>Moko</hw>, n. the system of tattooing practised by

the Maoris. See Tattoo. It is not a fact--as popularly

supposed--that the "moko" was distinctive in different

families; serving, as is sometimes said, the purpose of a

coat-of-arms. The "moko" was in fact all made on the same

pattern--that of all Maori carvings. Some were more elaborate

than others. The sole difference was that some were in outline

only, some were half filled in, and others were finished in

elaborate detail.

1769. J. Banks, `Journal,' Nov. 22 (Sir J. D. Hooker's edition,

1896), p. 203:

"They had a much larger quantity of amoca [sic] or

black stains upon their bodies and faces. They had almost

universally a broad spiral on each buttock, and many had their

thighs almost entirely black, small lines only being left

untouched, so that they looked like striped breeches. In this

particular, I mean the use of amoca, almost every tribe

seems to have a different custom."

1896. `The Times' (Weekly Edition), July 17, p. 498 col. 3:

"In this handsome volume, `Moko or Maori Tattooing,'

Major-General Robley treats of an interesting subject with a

touch of the horrible about it which, to some readers, will

make the book almost fascinating. Nowhere was the system of

puncturing the flesh into patterns and devices carried out in

such perfection or to such an extent as in New Zealand. Both

men and women were operated upon among the Maoris."

<hw>Moko-moko</hw>, n. (1) Maori name for the Bell-bird

(q.v.), Anthornis melanura, Sparrm.

1888. A. W. Bathgate, `Sladen's Australian Ballads,' p. 22:

[Title]: "To the Moko-moko, or Bell-bird."

[Footnote]: "Now rapidly dying out of our land," sc. New

Zealand.

(2) Maori name for the lizard, Lygosoma ornatum, Gray,

or Lygosoma moko, Durn. and Bib.

1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand'

(Church Missionary Society), p. 182:

"Moko-moko, a small lizard."

<hw>Mole, Marsupial</hw>. See Marsupial Mole.

<hw>Moloch</hw>, n. an Australian lizard, Moloch

horridus, Gray; called also Mountain Devil (q.v.).

There is no other species in the genus, and the adjective

(Lat. horridus, bristling) seems to have suggested the

noun, the name probably recalling Milton's line (`Paradise

Lost,' i. 392)

"First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood."

Moloch was the national god of the Ammonites (1 Kings xi. 7),

and was the personification of fire as a destructive element.

1896. Baldwin Spencer, `Horne Expedition in Central

Australia,' Narrative, p. 41:

"Numerous lizards such as the strange Moloch horridus,

the bright yellow, orange, red and black of which render it in

life very different in appearance from the bleached specimens

of museum cases."

<hw>Mongan</hw>, n. aboriginal name for the animal named

in the quotation.

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 173:

"Jimmy, however, had, to my great delight, found mongan

(Pseudochirus herbertensis), a new and very pretty

mammal, whose habitat is exclusively the highest tops of the

scrubs in the Coast Mountains."

<hw>Monk</hw>, n. another name for the Friar Bird

(q.v.).

<hw>Monkey-Bear</hw>, or <hw>Monkey</hw>, n. i.q.

Native Bear. See Bear.

1853. C. St. Julian and E. K. Silvester, `The

Productions, Industry, and Resources of New South Wales,'

p. 30:

"The Kola, so called by the aborigines, but more

commonly known among the settlers as the native bear or monkey,

is found in brush and forest lands . . ."

1891. Mrs. Cross (Ada Cambridge), `The Three Miss Kings,'

p. 9:

"A little monkey-bear came cautiously down from the only

gum-tree that grew on the premises, grunting and whimpering."

<hw>Monkey-shaft</hw>, n. "A shaft rising from a lower

to a higher level (as a rule perpendicularly), and differing

from a blind-shaft only in that the latter is sunk from a

higher to a lower level." (Brough Smyth's `Glossary.')

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 69:

"They began to think they might be already too deep for it,

and a small `monkey'-shaft was therefore driven upwards

from the end of the tunnel."

<hw>Monkeys</hw>, n. bush slang for sheep.

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i.

p. 88:

"No one felt better pleased than he did to see the last lot of

`monkeys,' as the shearers usually denominated sheep, leave the

head-station."

<hw>Monotreme</hw>, n. the scientific name of an order

of Australian mammals (Monotremata). "The Monotremes

derive their name from the circumstance that there is, as in

birds and reptiles, but a single aperture at the hinder

extremity of the body from which are discharged the whole of

the waste-products, together with the reproductive elements;

the oviducts opening separately into the end of this passage,

which is termed the cloaca. [Grk. monos, sole, and

traema, a passage or hole.] Reproduction is effected by

means of eggs, which are laid and hatched by the female parent;

after [being hatched] the young are nourished by milk secreted

by special glands situated within a temporary pouch, into which

the head of the young animal is inserted and retained. . . .

It was not until 1884 that it was conclusively proved that the

Monotremes did actually lay eggs similar in structure to those

of birds and reptiles." (R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia and

Monotremata,' 1894, p. 227.)

The Monotremes are strictly confined to Australia, Tasmania,

and New Guinea. They are the Platypus (q.v.), and the

Echidna (q.v.), or Ant-eating Porcupine.

<hw>Mooley-Apple</hw>, n. i.q. Emu-Apple (q.v.)

<hw>Moor-hen</hw>, n. common English bird-name

(Gallinula). The Australian species are--

the Black, Gallinula tenebrosa, Gould;

Rufous-tailed, G. ruficrissa, Gould.

1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 169:

"The Rail-like bird, the Black-tailed Tribonyx, or Moor-Hen of

the colonists, which, when strutting along the bank of a river,

has a grotesque appearance, with the tail quite erect like that

of a domestic fowl, and rarely resorts to flight." [The

Tribonyx is called Native Hen, not Moorhen.]

<hw>Moon</hw>, v. tr. a process in opossum-shooting,

explained in quotations.

1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 182:

"`Mooning' opossums is a speciality with country boys. The

juvenile hunter utilises the moon as a cavalry patrol would his

field-glass for every suspected point."

1890. E. Davenport Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 66:

"They had to go through the process known as `mooning.'

Walking backwards from the tree, each one tried to get the

various limbs and branches between him and the moon, and then

follow them out to the uttermost bunch of leaves where the

'possum might be feeding."

<hw>Mopoke</hw>, n. aboriginal name for an Australian

bird, from its note "Mopoke." There is emphasis on the first

syllable, but much more on the second. Settlers very early

attempted to give an English shape and sense to this name.

The attempt took two forms, "More pork," and

"Mopehawk"; both forms are more than fifty years old.

The r sound, however, is not present in the note of

the bird, although the form More-pork is perhaps even

more popular than the true form Mopoke. The form

Mope-hawk seems to have been adopted through dislike

of the perhaps coarser idea attaching to "pork." The quaint

spelling Mawpawk seems to have been adopted for a

similar reason.

The bird is heard far more often than seen, hence confusion

has arisen as to what is the bird that utters the note.

The earlier view was that the bird was Podargus cuvieri,

Vig. and Hors., which still popularly retains the name;

whereas it is really the owl, Ninox boobook, that

calls "morepork" or "mopoke" so loudly at night. Curiously,

Gould, having already assigned the name Morepork to

Podargus, in describing the Owlet Night-jar

varies the spelling and writes, "little Mawepawk,

Colonists of Van Diemen's Land." The New Zealand Morepork

is assuredly an owl. The Podargus has received the

name of Frogmouth and the Mopoke has sometimes

been called a Cuckoo (q.v.). See also Boobook,

Frogsmouth.

Of <i>Books</i>--