Austral English Part 31

"At nightfall, the fifteen flocks of sheep were all brought in, and `boxed,' or mixed together, to Ernest's astonishment."

1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 166:

"He must keep tally when the sheep are being counted or draughted, I'm not sure which, and swear--no, he needn't swear--when they get boxed."

1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 54:

"But the travelling sheep and the Wilga sheep were boxed on the Old Man Plain.

'Twas a full week's work ere they drafted out and hunted them off again."

Boxer, n. This word means in Australia the stiff, low-crowned, felt hat, called a billy-c.o.c.k or bowler. The silk-hat is called a bell-topper (q.v.).

1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 9, p. 14, col. 2:

"And will you wear a boxer that is in a battered state ?

I wonder, will you--now that you're a knight?"

Box-wood, n. a New Zealand wood, Olea lanceolata, Hook., N.O. Jasminea (Maori name, Maire). Used by the `Wellington Independent' (April 19, 1845) for woodcuts, and recommended as superior to box-wood for the purpose. See also Box, n.

Boyla, n. aboriginal word for a sorcerer.

1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 384:

"The absolute power of boylas or evil sorcerers ... he chanted gloomily:--

Oh, wherefore would they eat the muscles?

Now boylas storm and thunder make.

Oh, wherefore would they eat the muscles ?"

Bramble, Native, n. See Blackberry.

Bread, Native, n. a kind of fungus. "The sclerotium of Polyporus mylitta, C. et M. Until quite recently the sclerotium was known, but not the fructification.

It was thought probable that its fruit would be ascomycetous, and on the authority of Berkeley it was made the type of a genus as Mylitta Australis. It is found throughout Eastern Australia and Tasmania. The aborigines ate it, but to the European palate it is tough and tasteless, and probably as indigestible as leather." (L. Rodway.)

1843. James Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies,' p. 40:

"Natural Order. Fungi... . Mylitta Australis. Native Bread. This species of tuber is often found in the Colony, attaining to the size of a child's head: its taste somewhat resembles boiled rice. Like the heart of the Tree-fern, and the root of the Native Potato, cookery produces little change."

1848. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 157:

"11th October, 1848 ... Specimens of the fungus known as `native bread,' Mylitta Australis, lay upon the table. A member observed that this substance, grated and made into a pudding with milk alone, had been found by him very palatable. Prepared in the same way, and combined with double its weight of rice or sago, it has produced a very superior dish. It has also been eaten with approval in soup, after the manner of truffle, to which it is nearly allied."

1857. Dr. Milligan, in Bishop Nixon's `Cruise of the Beacon,'

p. 27:

"But that which afforded the largest amount of solid and substantial nutritious matter was the native bread, a fungus growing in the ground, after the manner of the truffle, and generally so near the roots of trees as to be reputed parasitical."

1896. `Hobart Mercury,' Oct. 30, p. 2, last col.:

"A large specimen of `native bread,' weighing 12 lb., has been unearthed on Crab Tree farm in the Huon district, by Mr. A. Cooper. It has been brought to town, and is being examined with interest by many at the British Hotel. It is one of the fungi tribe that forms hard ma.s.ses of stored food for future use."

Breadfruit-tree, name given by the explorer Leichhardt to the Queensland tree, Gardenia edulis, F. v. M., N.O. Rubiaceae.

Breakaway, n.(1) A bullock that leaves the herd.

1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4:

"The smartest stock horse that ever brought his rider up within whip distance of a breakaway or dodged the horns of a sulky beast, took the chance."

(2) The panic rush of sheep, cattle, or other animals at the sight or smell of water.

1891: "The Breakaway," t.i.tle of picture by Tom Roberts at Victorian Artists' Exhibition.

Bream, n. The name is applied in Australia to various species of Chrysophrys, family Sparidae, and to other fishes of different families. The Black-Bream (q.v.) is C. australis, Gunth.

The Bony-Bream is also called the Sardine (q.v.).

The Silver-Bream (q.v.) or White-Bream is Gerres ovatus, Gunth., family Percidae. The Red-Bream is a Schnapper (q.v.) one year old. The popular p.r.o.nunciation is Brim, and the fishes are all different from the various fishes called Bream in the northern hemisphere. See also Tarwhine and Blue-fish.

Brickfielder, n. (1) Originally a Sydney name for a cold wind, blowing from the south and accompanied by blinding clouds of dust; identical with the later name for the wind, the Southerly Buster (q.v.). The brickfields lay to the south of Sydney, and when after a hot wind from the west or north-west, the wind went round to the south, it was accompanied by great clouds of dust, brought up from the brickfields. These brickfields have long been a thing of the past, surviving only in "Brickfield Hill," the hilly part of George Street, between the Cathedral and the Railway Station.

The name, as denoting a cold wind, is now almost obsolete, and its meaning has been very curiously changed and extended to other colonies to denote a very hot wind. See below (Nos. 2 and 3), and the notes to the quotations.

1833. Lieut. Breton, R.N., `Excursions in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land,' p. 293:

"It sometimes happens that a change takes place from a hot wind to a `brickfielder,' on which occasions the thermometer has been known to fall, within half an hour, upwards of fifty degrees! That is to say, from above 100 degrees to 50 degrees! A brickfielder is a southerly wind, and it takes its local name from the circ.u.mstances of its blowing over, and bringing into town the flames [sic] of a large brick-field: it is nearly as detestable as a hot wind."

[Lieut. Breton must have had a strong imagination. The brickfields, at that date, were a mile away from the town, and the bringing in of their flames was an impossibility.

Perhaps, however, the word is a misprint for fumes; yet even then this earliest quotation indicates part of the source of the subsequent confusion of meaning. The main characteristic of the true brickfielder was neither flames nor fumes,--and certainly not heat,--but choking dust.]

1839. W. H. Leigh, `Reconnoitering Voyages, Travels, and Adventures in the new Colony of South Australia,' etc., p. 184:

"Whirlwinds of sand come rus.h.i.+ng upon the traveller, half blinding and choking him,--a miniature sirocco, and decidedly cousin-german to the delightful sandy puffs so frequent at Cape Town. The inhabitants call these miseries `Brickfielders,' but why they do so I am unable to divine; probably because they are in their utmost vigour on a certain hill here, where bricks are made."

[This writer makes no allusion to the temperature of the wind, whether hot or cold, but lays stress on its especial characteristic, the dust. His comparison with the sirocco chiefly suggests the clouds of sand brought by that wind from the Libyan Desert, with its accompanying thick haze and darkness (`half blinding and choking'), rather than its relaxing warmth.]

1844. John Rae, `Sydney Ill.u.s.trated,' p. 26:

"The `brickfielder' is merely a colonial name for a violent gust of wind, which, succeeding a season of great heat, rushes in to supply the vacuum and equalises the temperature of the atmosphere; and when its baneful progress is marked, sweeping over the city in thick clouds of brick-coloured dust (from the brickfields), it is time for the citizens to close the doors and windows of their dwellings, and for the sailor to take more than half his canvas in, and prepare for a storm."

[Here the characteristic is again dust from the brickfields, as the origin of the name, with cold as an accompaniment.]

1844. Mrs.Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,'

p. 44:

"These dust winds are locally named `brickfielders,' from the direction in which they come" [i.e. from neighbouring sandhills, called the brickfields].

[Here dust is the only characteristic observed, with the direction of the wind as the origin of its name.]

1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 4:

"The greatest peculiarity in the climate is what is called by colonists a brickfielder. This wind has all the characteristics of a sirocco in miniature ... . Returning home, he discovers that the house is full of sand; that the brickfielder has even insinuated itself between the leaves of his books; at dinner he will probably find that his favourite fish has been spoiled by the brickfielder. Nor is this all; for on retiring to rest he will find that the brickfielder has intruded even within the precincts of his musquito curtains."