ded as the mistress of the hut or wurley. The word
<i>wurley</i> is from the language of the Adelaide tribe.
The Narrinyeri word is <i>mante</i>. I have used `wurley'
because it is more generally understood by the colonists."

1880. P. J. Holdsworth, `Station Hunting on the Warrego':

"`My hand

Must weather-fend the wurley'. This he did.
He bound the thick boughs close with bushman's skill,
Till not a gap was left where raging showers
Or gusts might riot. Over all he stretched
Strong bands of cane-grass, plaited cunningly."

1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 42

"He took
His axe, and shaped with boughs and wattle-forks
A wurley, fashioned like a bushman's roof."

X

<hw>Xanthorrhoea</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for a genus
of Australian plants, <i>N.O. Liliaceae</i>, having thick
palm-like trunks. They exude a yellow resin.
(Grk. <i>Xanthos</i>, yellow, and <i>rhoia</i>, a flow,
sc. of the resin.) They are called <i>Black Boys</i>
and <i>Grass-trees</i> (q.v.).

Y

<hw>Yabber</hw>, <i>n</i>. Used for the talk of the aborigines.
Some think it is the English word <i>jabber</i>, with the first
letter pronounced as in German; but it is pronounced by the
aborigines <i>yabba</i>, without a final <i>r</i>. <i>Ya</i>
is an aboriginal stem, meaning to speak. In the Kabi dialect,
<i>yaman</i> is to speak: in the Wiradhuri, <i>yarra</i>.

1874. M. K. Beveridge, `Lost Life,' pt. iii. p. 37:

"I marked
Much yabber that I did not know."

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 28:

"Longing to fire a volley of blacks' yabber across a London
dinner-table."

1886. R. Henty, `Australiana,' p. 23:

"The volleys of abuse and `yabber yabber' they would then utter
would have raised the envy of the greatest `Mrs. Moriarty' in
the Billingsgate fishmarket."

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 55:

"Is it French or Queensland blacks' yabber? Blest if I
understand a word of it."

<hw>Yabber</hw>, <i>v. intr</i>. (See noun.)

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 19:

"They yabbered unsuspiciously to each other."

1887. J. Farrell, `How he died,' p. 126:

"He's yabbering some sort of stuff in his sleep."

<hw>Yabby</hw>, <i>n</i>. properly <i>Yappee</i>, aboriginal
name for a small crayfish found in water-holes in many parts
of Australia, <i>Astacopsis bicarinatus</i>.