"The dye in question was a solution of burnt or powdered resin, or wood, or the aweto, the latter a caterpillar, which, burrowing in the vegetable soil, gets a spore of a fungus between the folds of its neck, and unable to free itself, the insect's body nourishes the fungus, which vegetates and occasions the death of the caterpillar by exactly filling the interior of the body with its roots, always preserving its perfect form. When properly charred this material yielded a fine dark dye, much prized for purposes of moko." [See <i>Moko</i>.]
<hw>Axe-breaker</hw>, <i>n</i>. name of a tree, <i>Notelaea longifolia</i>, Vent., <i>N.O. Jasmineae</i>.
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 579:
"Axe-breaker. Wood hard, close-grained and firm. Its vernacular name emphasizes its hardness."
B
<hw>Baal</hw>, or <hw>Bail</hw>, <i>interj</i>. and <i>adv</i>. "An aboriginal expression of disapproval." (Gilbert Parker, Glossary to `Round the Compass in Australia,' 1888.) It was the negative in the Sydney dialect.
1893. J. F. Hogan, `Robert Lowe,' p. 271, quoting from `The Atlas' (circa 1845):
"Traces, however, of the Egyptian language are discoverable among the present inhabitants, with whom, for instance, the word `Bale' or `Baal' is in continual use . . . ." [Evidently a joke.]
<hw>Babbler</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name. In Europe, "name given, on account of their harsh chattering note, to the long-legged thrushes." (`O.E.D.') The group "contains a great number of birds not satisfactorily located elsewhere, and has been called the ornithological waste-basket." (`Century.') The species are—
The Babbler—
<i>Pomatostomus temporalis</i>, V. and H.