moha moha
English
Etymology
Miss Lovell's first report (quote below) spelt the creature moka moka, but in her second it was moha moha (also below).
Noun
moha moha (plural not attested)
- (cryptozoology) A type of sea creature reported seen by a Miss Lovell and others at Sandy Cape in South-East Queensland, Australia, on 8 June 1890. She described it as some 30 feet long with a turtle-like neck extending from a rounded body some 8 feet across, and a long fish-like tail.
- 1891 S. Lovell, Tempus omnia monstra, in Land and Water, London, 3 March 1891 (quoted by Malcolm Smith, Bunyips and Bigfoots, Millennium Books, 1996, →ISBN, who was unable to obtain the original and so quotes from Bernard Heuvelmans, In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents, 1968, who in turn apparently quotes from Antoon C. Oudemans, The Great Sea-Serpent, 1892).
- Native blacks call it 'Moka, moka' and say they like to eat it, and that it has legs and fingers.
- 1891, S. Lovell, Land and Water, 25 April 1891 (again Malcolm Smith from Heuvelmans etc).
- The blacks, who had not seen it the day I did, named it at once from my sketch, which must, therefore, be pretty accurate, and called it 'Moha, Moha', and laughed and said, 'Saucy Fellow, Meebee' – in English, 'dangerous turtle'.
- 1891 S. Lovell, Tempus omnia monstra, in Land and Water, London, 3 March 1891 (quoted by Malcolm Smith, Bunyips and Bigfoots, Millennium Books, 1996, →ISBN, who was unable to obtain the original and so quotes from Bernard Heuvelmans, In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents, 1968, who in turn apparently quotes from Antoon C. Oudemans, The Great Sea-Serpent, 1892).
Synonyms
- Chelosauria lovelli