black-birding
n.— «The settlers found it difficult to recruit workers from among the warring tribes. With this began the pernicious trade in human beings: unsuspecting people were kidnapped or lured onto visiting ships on the other Pacific Islands and brought to work on the plantations. The practice was known as “black-birding” and Fiji’s black-birding era came to an end only in the 1870s.» —“The India connection” Fiji Times (Suva) July 8, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Miley in The Dalles, Oregon, asks about going gunny bags meaning to “break down” or “go haywire.” Her mother uses this expression, but has no idea where she picked it up. The term gunny sack, referring to a bag made of coarse material such as jute...
Twice a day the River Thames recedes, revealing a muddy shoreline. Hobbyists known as mudlarks stroll the surface searching for objects that have found their way into the river over the centuries, everything from ancient Roman jewelry to modern...