Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia - Edward Ellis Morris

"The unused food . . . of our little camp, together with the empty kie-kie baskets."

[sc. baskets made of kie-kie leaves.]

<hw>Kiley</hw>, n. aboriginal word in Western Australia for a flat weapon, curved for throwing, made plane on one side and slightly convex on the other. A kind of boomerang.

1839. Nathaniel Ogle, `The Colony of Western Australia,' p. 57:

"In every part of this great continent they have the koilee, or boomerang . . ."

1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. 1. c. iv. p. 72:

"One of them had a kiley or bomerang."

1872. Mrs. E. Millett, `An Australian Parsonage; or, The Settler and the Savage in Western Australia,' p. 222:

"The flat curved wooden weapon, called a kylie, which the natives have invented for the purpose of killing several birds out of a flock at one throw, looks not unlike a bird itself as it whizzes (or walks as natives say) through the air in its circular and ascending flight. . ."

1885 Lady Barker, `Letters to Guy,' p. 177: