her hand, it must be remembered that it is an
ascertained fact that the aborigines taboo a word on the death
of any one bearing that word as a proper name. (See quotation
under <i>Nobbler</i>, 1880.) If, therefore, after Cook's visit,
some man called <i>Kangaroo</i> died, the whole tribe would
expunge <i>Kangaroo</i> from its vocabulary. There is,
however, some evidence that the word was much later in use
in Western Australia. (See quotation, 1835.)

It is now asserted that the word is in use again at the very
part of Queensland where the <i>Endeavour</i> was beached.
Lumholtz, in his `Amongst Cannibals' (p. 311), gives it in his
aboriginal vocabulary. Mr. De Vis, of the Brisbane Museum, in
his paper before the Geographical Society at Brisbane (1894),
says that "in point of fact the word `kangaroo' is the normal
equivalent for kangaroo at the Endeavour River; and not only
so, it is almost the type-form of a group of variations in use
over a large part of Australia." It is curiously hard to
procure satisfactory evidence as to the fact. Mr. De Vis says
that his first statement was "made on the authority of a
private correspondent; "but another correspondent writes from
Cooktown, that the blacks there have taken <i>Kangaroo</i> from
English. Inquiries inserted in each of the Cooktown newspapers
have produced no result. Mr. De Vis' second argument as to the
type-form seems much stronger. A spoken language, unwritten,
unprinted, must inevitably change, and change rapidly. A word
current in 1770 would change rather than disappear, and the
root consonants would remain. The letters <i>ng</i> together,
followed by <i>r</i>, occur in the proportion of one in
thirteen, of the names for the animal tabulated by Curr.

It is a difficult matter on which to speak decidedly, but
probably no great mistake was made, and the word received was
a genuine name of the animal.

See further the quotations, 1896.

(b) The Plural of the Word.

There seems to be considerable doubt as to the plural of the
word, whether it should take <i>s</i> like most English words,
or remain unchanged like <i>sheep, deer</i>. In two
consecutive pages of one book the two plurals are used. The
general use is the plural in <i>s</i>. See 1793 Hunter, 1845
Balfour, and 1880 Senior; sportsmen frequently use the form
<i>Kangaroo</i>.

[Since 1888 a kangaroo has been the design on the one-shilling
postage stamp of New South Wales.]

1815. `Hist