</i>. a wild
horse. The origin of this word is very doubtful. Some claim
for it an aboriginal, and some an English source. In its
present shape it figures in one aboriginal vocabulary, given in
Curr's `Australian Race' (1887), vol. iii. p. 259. At p. 284,
<i>booramby</i> is given as meaning "wild" on the river Warrego
in Queensland. The use of the word seems to have spread from
the Warrego and the Balowne about 1864. Before that date, and
in other parts of the bush ere the word came to them, wild
horses were called <i>clear-skins</i> or <i>scrubbers</i>,
whilst <i>Yarraman</i> (q.v.) is the aboriginal word for a
quiet or broken horse. A different origin was, however, given
by an old resident of New South Wales, to a lady of the name of
Brumby, viz. "that in the early days of that colony, a
Lieutenant Brumby, who was on the staff of one of the
Governors, imported some very good horses, and that some of
their descendants being allowed to run wild became the
ancestors the wild horses of New South Wales and Queensland."
Confirmation of this story is to be desired.

1880. `The Australasian,' Dec. 4, p. 712, col. 3:

"Passing through a belt of mulga, we saw, on reaching its edge,
a mob of horses grazing on the plains beyond. These our guide
pronounced to be `brumbies,' the bush name here [Queensland]
for wild horses."

1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 176:

"The wild horses of this continent known all over it by the
Australian name of `brumbies.'"

Ibid. p. 178:

"The untamed and `unyardable' scrub brumby."

1888. R. Kipling, `Plain Tales from the Hills,' p. 160:

"Juggling about the country, with an Australian larrikin; a
`brumby' with as much breed as the boy. . . . People who lost
money on him called him a `brumby.'"

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms.' p. 67:

"The three-cornered weed he rode that had been a `brumbee.'"

1895. `Chambers' Journal,' Nov. 2, Heading `Australian Brumbie
Horses':

"The brumbie horse of Australia, tho' not a distinct equine
variety, possesses attributes and qualities peculiar to itself,
and, like the wild cattle and wild buffaloes of Australia, is
the descendant of runaways of imported stock."

1896. `Sydney Morning Herald,' (Letter from `J. F. G.,' dated
Aug. 24):

"Amongst the blacks on the Lower Balonne, Nebine, Warrego, and
Bulloo rivers the word used for horse is `baroombie,' the `a'
being cut so short that the word sound