bulmakau

Bislama: bulumakao (archaic); Pijin: bulumakau; TSC: bulmakau.

James Chalmers wrote in 1898 that ‘I once had a conversation with an old cannibal, converted to Christianity when I knew him. “Is man good to eat?” “You savee bulamakau?” “Yes.” “Well, no good.” “You savee pig?” “Yes.” “Well, no good.” “You savee sheep?” “Yes.” “Well, no good; man he too much good, and he smacked his lips’ (Lovett 1903:142).

Chalmers only worked in Papua, and it is probable that the conversation did not take in any part of New Guinea where an emergent version of Tok Pisin was being spoken, but in Rarotonga where Chalmers was stationed between 1867-1876 and where on arrival he was disappointed to find the people ‘so much civilized and Christianized’, the people having given up cannibalism years before (Lovett 1903:75-7). Chalmers spoke the Rarotongan language very well and he and his teachers initially used it for liturgy in Papua (e.g. Lovett 1903:149).

Churchill (1911: 37) reports bullamacow and pulumakau.

See original Mihalic entry.

Noun forms

1. Fauna: cow or bull, cattle
   abus bulmakau beef
   bulmakau man a bull
   bulmakau meri a cow
   haus bulmakau a stable, a cowshed
   pikinini bulmakau a calf
   tin bulmakau bully beef

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