bours. And the shepherds in the other gallery, instead of
being light-hearted beings with pipes and crooks--<i>a la</i>
Watteau and Pope--looked unutterable things at the individuals
who had cast sheep's eyes on their holding."

<hw>Shicer</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) An unproductive <i>claim</i>
or mine: a <i>duffer</i>. From the German <i>scheissen</i>.

1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 135:

"A claim without gold is termed a `shicer.'"

1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. ix. p. 256:

"It's a long sight better nor bottoming a shicer."

1863. `Victorian Hansard,' May 10, vol. ix. p. 571:

"Mr. Howard asked whether the member for Collingwood knew
the meaning of the word `shicer.' Mr. Don replied in the
affirmative. He was not an exquisite, like the hon. member
(laughter), and he had worked on the goldfields, and he had
always understood a shicer to be a hole with no gold."

1870. S. Lemaitre, `Songs of Goldfields,' p. 15:

"Remember when you first came up
Like shicers, innocent of gold."

1894. `The Argus,' March 10, p. 4, col. 7:

"There are plenty of creeks in this country that have only so
far been scratched--a hole sunk here and there and abandoned.
No luck, no perseverance; and so the place has been set down as
a duffer, or, as the old diggers' more expressive term had it,
a `shicer.'"

(2) Slang. By transference from (1). A man who does not pay
his debts of honour.

1896. Modern:

"Don't take his bet, he's a regular shicer."

<hw>Shingle-splitting</hw>, <i>vb. n</i>. obsolete Tasmanian
slang.

1830. `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 89:

"When a man gets behindhand with his creditors in Hobart Town,
and rusticates in the country in order to avoid the
unseasonable calls of the Sheriff's little gentleman, that
delights to stand at a corner where four streets meet, so as
the better to watch the motions of his prey, he is said to be
shingle-splitting."

<hw>Shirallee</hw>, <i>n</i>. slang term for a swag or bundle
of blankets.

<hw>Shout</hw>, v. to stand treat. (1) Of drink. (2) By
transference, of other things. The successful digger used to
<i>call</i> passers-by to drink at his expense. The origin may
also be from noisy bar-rooms, or crowded bar-parlours, where
the man who was to pay for the liquor or refreshment called or
<i>shouted</i> for the waiter or barman. When many men drink
together the waiter of course looks for payment from the man
who first calls or <