Word Detail

(N)

Stone [goowa]

Stone must have heard the same word as he writes [goowa]. He however has an account of 'the Fog that killed', or 'Poison Fog' which he calls [Yathunge jah] and he explains: 'perhaps 80 to 100 years ago a swiftly killing disease... killed a great number of the Boga tribe. The idea was that it came like a fog, low-lying over the land’. There is no problem with [yathunge] as this is yathangga 'bad', but [jah] does not correspond to the word for 'fog' and seems to be a rendering of tya 'land'. The term [Yathunge jah] should therefore be translated as 'poisoned land', land presumably poisoned by the fog that lay over it. (image with thanks from Karen Tunny-2023)

Sky, Weather