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Pa, or Pah, n. The former is now considered the more correct spelling. A Maori word to signify a native settlement, surrounded by a stockade; a fort; a fighting village. In Maori, the verb pa means, to touch, to block up. Pa = a collection of houses to which access is blocked by means of stockades and ditches.
1769. 'Captain Cook's Journal' (edition Wharton, 1893), p. 147:
'I rather think they are places of retreat or stronghold, where they defend themselves against the attack of an enemy, as some of them seemed not ill-design'd for that purpose.'
Ibid. p. 156:
'Have since learnt that they have strongholds--or hippas, as they call them--which they retire to in time of danger.'
[Hawkesworth spelt it, Heppahs; he = Maori definite article.]
1794. 'History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 175:
'[On the coast of New Zealand] they passed many huts and a considerable hippah, or fortified place, on a high round hill, from the neighbourhood of which six large canoes were seen coming towards the ship.'
1842. W. R. Wade, 'Journey in New Zealand' (Hobart Town), p. 27:
'A native pa, or enclosed village, is usually surrounded by a high stockade, or irregular wooden fence, the posts of which are often of great height and thickness, and sometimes headed by the frightful carving of an uncouth or indecent image.'
1858. 'Appendix to Journal of House of Representatives,' E-4, p. 4:
'They seem, generally speaking, at present inveterate in their adherence to their dirty native habits, and to their residence in pas.'
1859. A. S. Thomson, M.D., 'Story of New Zealand,' p. 132:
'The construction of the war pas . . . exhibits the inventive faculty of the New Zealanders better than any other of their works. . . . Their shape and size depended much on the nature of the ground and the strength of the tribe. They had double rows of fences on all unprotected sides; the inner fence, twenty to thirty feet high, was formed of poles stuck in the ground, slightly bound together with supple-jacks, withes, and torotoro creepers. The outer fence, from six to eight feet high, was constructed of lighter materials. Between the two there was a dry ditch. The only openings in the outer fence were small holes; in the inner fence there were sliding bars. Stuck in the fences were exaggerated wooden figures of men with gaping mouths and out-hanging tongues. At every corner were stages for sentinels, and in the centre scaffolds, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad, from which men discharged darts at the enemy. Suspended by cords from an elevated stage hung a wooden gong twelve feet long, not unlike a canoe in shape, which, when struck with a wooden mallet, emitted a sound heard in still weather twenty miles off. Previously to a siege the women and children were sent away to places of safety.'
1863. T. Moser, 'Mahoe Leaves,' p. 14:
'A pah is strictly a fortified village, but it has ceased to be applied to a fortified one only, and a collection of huts forming a native settlement is generally called a pah now-a-days.'
1867. F. Hochstetter, 'New Zealand,' p. 22:
'They found the pah well fortified, and were not able to take it.'
1879. Clement Bunbury, 'Fraser's Magazine, June, p. 761:
'The celebrated Gate Pah, where English soldiers in a panic ran away from the Maoris, and left their officers to be killed.'
1889. Cassell's' Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 46:
'A sally was made from the pah, but it was easily repulsed. Within the pah the enemy were secure.'
Pachycephala, n. the scientific name for the typical genus of Pachycephalinae, founded in 1826 by Vigors and Horsfield. It is an extensive group of thick-headed shrikes, containing about fifty species, ranging in the Indian and Australian region, but not in New Zealand. The type is P. gutturalis, Latham., of Australia. ('Century.') They are singing-birds, and are called Thickheads (q.v.), and often Thrushes (q.v.). The name is from the Greek pachus, thick, and kephalae, the head.
Packer, n. used for a pack-horse.
1875. Wood and Lapham, 'Waiting for Mail,' p. 59:
'The boys took notice of a horse, some old packer he looked like.'
1890. 'The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 1:
'The Darling drover with his saddle-horses and packers.'
Paddock . (1) 1n England, a small field; in Australia, the general word for any field, or for any block of land enclosed by a fence. The 'Home-paddock' is the paddock near the Homestation, and usually very large.
1832. J. Bischoff, 'Van Diemen's Land,' c. vi. p. 148:
'There is one paddock of 100 acres, fenced on four sides.'
1844. 'Port Phillip Patriot,' July 25, p. 3, col. 6:
'A 300-acre grass paddock, enclosed by a two-rail fence.'
1846. C. P. Hodgson, 'Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 42:
'The paddocks are so arranged that hills may afford shelter, and plains or light-timbered flats an escape from the enormous flies and other persecuting enemies.'
1892. 'Scribner's Magazine,' Feb., p. 141:
''Paddocks,' as the various fields are called (some of these 'paddocks' contain 12,000 acres).'
(2) An excavation made for procuring wash-dirt in shallow ground. A place built near the mouth of a shaft where quartz or wash-dirt is stored. (Brough Smyth, 'Glossary of Mining Terms,' 1869.)
1895. 'Otago Witness,' Nov. 21, p. 22, col. 5:
'A paddock was opened at the top of the beach, but rock-bottom was found.'
Paddock . v. to divide into paddocks.
1873. A. Trollope, 'Australia and New Zealand,' c. xx. p. 302:
'When a run is paddocked shepherds are not required; but boundary riders are required.'
Paddy Lucerne, n. i.q. Queensland Hemp. See under Hemp.
Paddymelon, n. the name of a small Wallaby (q.v.), Macropus thetidis, Lesson. It is certainly a corruption of an aboriginal name, and is spelt variously pademelon, padmelon, and melon simply. (See Melon-holes.) This word is perhaps the best instance in Australia of the law of Hobson-Jobson, by which a strange word is fitted into a language, assuming a likeness to existing words without any regard to the sense. The Sydney name for kangaroo was patagorang. See early quotations. This word seems to give the first half of the modern word. Pata, or pada, was the generic name: mella an adjective denoting the species. Paddymalla (1827) marks an intermediate stage, when one-half of the word had been anglicised. At Jervis Bay, New South Wales, the word potalemon was used for a kangaroo.
1793. J. Hunter, 'Voyage,' p. 547:
'The pattagorang and baggaray frequently supplied our colonists with fresh meals, and Governor Phillip had three young ones, which were likely to live: he has not the least doubt but these animals are formed in the false belly.'
1798. D. Collins, 'Account of English Colony in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 548:
'The pat-ta-go-rang or kangooroo was (bood-yer-re) good, and they ate it whenever they were fortunate enough to kill one.'
1827. P. Cunningham, 'Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 310:
'The wallabee and paddymalla grow to about sixty pounds each.'
1830. R. Dawson, 'Present State of Australia,' p. 212:
'Had hunted down a paddymelon (a very small species of kangaroo, which is found in the long grass and thick brushes).'
1845. Clement Hodgkinson, 'Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay,' p. 45:
'The brush-kangaroos or pademellas were thus gradually enclosed.'
1846. G. H. Haydon, 'Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 47:
'A small species of the kangaroo tribe, called by the sealers paddymelon, is found on Philip Island, while none have been seen on French Island.'
1851. J. Henderson, 'Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 129:
'The small kind of kangaroo, however, called by the natives 'Paddy Melon,' and which inhabits the dense brushes or jungles, forms a more frequent, and more easily obtained article of food.'
1863. M. K. Beveridge, 'Gatherings,' p. 41:
'An apron made from skin of Paddie-Melon.'
1863. B. A. Heywood, 'Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' p. 107:
'In the scrub beyond, numbers of a small kind of kangaroo called 'Paddy- Mellans,' resort.'
[Footnote] 'I cannot guarantee the spelling.'
1888. Cassell's' Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 90:
'The kangaroo and his relatives, the wallaby and the paddymelon.'
1890. A. H. S. Lucas, 'Handbook of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science,' p. 62:
'Onychogale fraenatus and its ally O. lunatus. Mr. Le Souef reports that the former are fairly numerous in the Mallee country to the north-west of the Colony, and are there known as Pademelon.' [This seems to be only a local use.]
1893. J. L. Purves, Quoy.C., in 'The Argus,' Decaisne. 14, p. 9, col. 7:
'On either side is a forest, the haunt of wombats and tree-bears, and a few paddymelons.'
Paddymelon-Stick, n. a stick used by the aborigines for knocking paddymelons (q.v.) on the head.
1851. J. Henderson, 'Excursions in New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 129:
'These are hunted in the brushes and killed with paddy mellun sticks with which they are knocked down. These sticks are about 2 feet long and an inch or less in diameter.'
1881. A. C. Grant, 'Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 56:
'Nulla-mullahs, paddy-melon sticks, boomerangs, tomahawks, and heelimen or shields lay about in every direction.'
Pah, n. i.q. Pa (q.v.).
Pake, n. Maori name for a coarse mat used against rain. A sack thrown over the shoulders is called by the settlers a Pake.
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