Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/174

 foolish a business, but the women seemed delighted with the row. I was not, however, able satisfactorily to ascertain "whether this was a regular fight, or one of their judicial combats. On the one hand, they did not make use of the liangle, their most deadly weapon; this does riot look like the former, but on the other, there were three men wounded, which is not in accordance with one's idea of the latter, unless one would suppose it to have been a kind of general gaol delivery.

The mode in which communication is carried on between the natives and the settlers, is by a kind of lingua franca, composed partly of Sydney and Melbourne native words, partly of thieves' cant, and partly of English words peculiarly applied, the word "plenty" performing a conspicuous part in the colloquy. The following is a specimen of such eloquence:—"You pilmillally jumbuck, plenty sulky me, plenty boom, borack gammon," which being interpreted, means—"If you steal my sheep I shall be very angry, and will shoot you and no mistake." In the language spoken by the tribes of Melbourne, Corio, Weirabbee and Barrabul, there is no such sound as that of the letter S, and their attempts to pronounce English words involving that sound, are very laughable. Their numerals do not extend, properly speaking, beyond three; four being expressed by a repetition of the word which signifies two, and all beyond that is expressed by the word "orar," which means a great number.