ERRORS REGARDING SCARCITY OF FOOD OF NATIVES.
The mistake very commonly made with regard to the natives of Australia is
to imagine that they have small means of subsistence, or are at times
greatly pressed for want of food: I could produce many almost humorous
instances of the errors which travellers have fallen into upon this
point. They lament in their journals that the unfortunate Aborigines
should be reduced by famine to the miserable necessity of subsisting on
certain sorts of food which they have found near their huts; whereas in
many instances the articles thus quoted by them are those which the
natives most prize, and are really neither deficient in flavour nor
nutritious qualities. I will give one remarkable example of an error of
this kind into which a traveller of great ability has fallen; but this
will only render palpable the ignorance that has prevailed with regard to
the habits and customs of this people when in their wild state, for those
who frequent European towns and the outskirts of population are soon
compelled by the force of circumstances to depart, in a great measure,
from their original habits.
Captain Sturt, to whom I allude, says in his travels (volume 1 page 118):
Among other things we found a number of bark troughs filled with the gum
of the mimosa, and vast quantities of gum made into cakes upon the
ground. From this it would appear that these unfortunate creatures were
reduced to the last extremity, and, being unable to procure any other
nourishment, had been obliged to collect this mucilaginous food.
...
The gum of the mimosa, thus referred to, is a favourite article of food
amongst the natives, and when it is in season they assemble in large
numbers upon plains of the character previously described by Captain
Sturt in order to enjoy this luxury. The profusion in which this gum is
found enables large bodies to meet together, which, from their
subsistence being derived from wild animals and vegetables of spontaneous
growth, they can only do when some particular article is in full season,
or when a whale is thrown ashore. In order more fully to show how little
the habits of this people have been understood I may state with regard to
this very gum, called by the natives kwon-nat, that about the time the
above account was published by Captain Sturt an expedition was sent out
from King George's Sound in Western Australia in order to discover what
was the nature of the article of food so loudly praised by them, and
which they stated was to be found in certain districts in great
profusion; the belief at that time being, from the accounts given of it,
that it could be only a new and valuable species of grain. The exploring
party did not attain their object, and to this day many of the settlers
believe the kwon-nat to be a kind of corn.
FOOD PLENTIFUL. VARIETIES OF IT IN DIFFERENT LATITUDES.
Generally speaking the natives live well; in some districts there may at
particular seasons of the year be a deficiency of food, but if such is
the case these tracts are at those times deserted. It is however utterly
impossible for a traveller or even for a strange native to judge whether
a district affords an abundance of food or the contrary; for in
traversing extensive parts of Australia I have found the sorts of food
vary from latitude to latitude, so that the vegetable productions used by
the Aborigines in one are totally different to those in another; if
therefore a stranger has no one to point out to him the vegetable
productions, the soil beneath his feet may teem with food whilst he
starves. The same rule holds good with regard to animal productions; for
example in the southern parts of the continent the Xanthorrhoea affords
an inexhaustible supply of fragrant grubs, which an epicure would delight
in when once he has so far conquered his prejudices as to taste them;
whilst in proceeding to the northward these trees decline in health and
growth, until about the parallel of Gantheaume Bay they totally
disappear, and even a native finds himself cut off from his ordinary
supplies of insects; the same circumstances taking place with regard to
the roots and other kinds of food at the same time, the traveller
necessarily finds himself reduced to cruel extremities. A native from the
plains, taken into an elevated mountainous district near his own country
for the first time, is equally at fault.
VARIED WITH THE SEASONS.
But in his own district a native is very differently situated; he knows
exactly what it produces, the proper time at which the several articles
are in season, and the readiest means of procuring them. According to
these circumstances he regulates his visits to the different portions of
his hunting ground; and I can only state that I have always found the
greatest abundance in their huts.
CAUSES OF OCCASIONAL WANT.
There are however two periods of the year when they are at times
subjected to the pangs of hunger: these are in the hottest time of summer
and in the height of the rainy season. At the former period the heat
renders them so excessively indolent that until forced by want they will
not move, and at the latter they suffer so severely from the cold and
rain that I have known them remain for two successive days at their huts
without quitting the fire; and even when they do quit it they always
carry a fire-stick with them, which greatly embarrasses their movements.
In all ordinary seasons however they can obtain in two or three hours a
sufficient supply of food for the day, but their usual custom is to roam
indolently from spot to spot, lazily collecting it as they wander along.
LIST OF EDIBLE ARTICLES.
That an accurate idea may be formed of the quantity and kinds of food
which they obtain, I have given below a list of those in use amongst the
aborigines of South-western Australia which I have seen them collect and
eat; and I will, in the order in which they stand on this list, show the
mode of obtaining them, and the way in which they are cooked.
Different articles of food eaten by the natives of Western Australia:
Six sorts of kangaroo.
Twenty-nine sorts of fish.
One kind of whale.
Two species of seal.
Wild dogs.
Three kinds of turtle.
Emus, wild turkeys, and birds of every kind.
Two species of opossum.
Eleven kinds of frogs.
Four kinds of freshwater shellfish.
All saltwater shellfish, except oysters.
Four kinds of grubs.
Eggs of every species of bird or lizard.
Five animals, something smaller in size than rabbits.
Eight sorts of snakes.
Seven sorts of iguana.
Nine species of mice and small rats.
Twenty-nine sorts of roots.
Seven kinds of fungus.
Four sorts of gum.
Two sorts of manna.
Two species of by-yu, or the nut of the Zamia palm.
Two species of mesembryanthemum.
Two kinds of nut.
Four sorts of fruit.
The flower of several species of Banksia.
One kind of earth, which they pound and mix with the root of the mene.
The seeds of several species of leguminous plants.
It will be necessary however before commencing this sketch to give an
outline of the weapons and implements with which the different animals
are caught and killed, and the vegetable productions procured.
EQUIPMENT FOR A HUNT. IMPLEMENTS FOR DESTROYING ANIMALS.
The natives nearly always carry the whole of their worldly property about
with them, and the Australian hunter is thus equipped: round his middle
is wound, in many folds, a cord spun from the fur of the opossum, which
forms a warm, soft and elastic belt of an inch in thickness, in which are
stuck his hatchet, his kiley or boomerang, and a short heavy stick to
throw at the smaller animals. His hatchet is so ingeniously placed that
the head of it rests exactly on the centre of his back, whilst its thin
short handle descends along the backbone. In his hand he carries his
throwing-stick and several spears, headed in two or three different
manners so that they are equally adapted to war or the chase. A warm
kangaroo skin cloak completes his equipment in the southern portions of
the continent; but I have never seen a native with a cloak anywhere to
the north of 29 degrees south latitude.
DESCRIPTION AND USE OF THE WEAPONS.
These weapons, although apparently so simple, are admirably adapted for
the purposes they are intended to serve. The spear when projected from
the throwing-stick forms as effectual a weapon as the bow and arrow,
whilst at the same time it is much less liable to be injured, and it
possesses over the bow and arrow the advantage of being useful to poke
out kangaroo-rats and opossums from hollow trees, to knock off gum from
high branches, to pull down the cones from the Banksia trees, and for
many other purposes.
The hatchet is used to cut up the larger kinds of game and to make holes
in the trees the owner is about to climb. The kiley is thrown into
flights of wild-fowl and cockatoos, and with the dow-uk, a short heavy
stick, they knock over the smaller kinds of game much in the same manner
that poachers do hares and rabbits in England.
CONTENTS OF THE WOMEN'S BAG OR WALLET.
Thus equipped the father of the family stalks forth, and at a respectful
distance behind him follow the women; a long thick stick, the point of
which has been hardened in the fire, is in each of their hands, a child
or two fixed in their bags or upon their shoulders, and in the deep
recesses of these mysterious bags they carry moreover sundry articles
which constitute the wealth of the Australian savage. These are however
worthy of a particular enumeration, as this will make plain the domestic
economy of one of these barbarian housewives.
The contents of a native woman's bag are: A flat stone to pound roots
with; earth to mix with the pounded roots; quartz, for the purpose of
making spears and knives; stones for hatchets; prepared cakes of gum, to
make and mend weapons and implements; kangaroo sinews to make spears and
to sew with; needles made of the shin-bones of kangaroos, with which they
sew their cloaks, bags, etc.; opossum hair to be spun into waist belts;
shavings of kangaroo skins to polish spears, etc.; the shell of a species
of mussel to cut hair, etc., with; native knives; a native hatchet;
pipe-clay; red ochre, or burnt clay; yellow ochre, a piece of paperbark
to carry water in; waistbands and spare ornaments; pieces of quartz which
the native doctors have extracted from their patients, and thus cured
them from diseases; these they preserve as carefully as Europeans do
relics. Banksia cones (small ones) or pieces of a dry white species of
fungus to kindle fire with rapidly and to convey it from place to place;
grease, if they can procure it from a whale, or from any other source;
the spare weapons of their husbands, or the pieces of wood from which
these are to be manufactured; the roots, etc., which they have collected
during the day. Skins not yet prepared for cloaks are generally carried
between the bag and the back, so as to form a sort of cushion for the bag
to rest on.
In general each woman carries a lighted fire-stick, or brand, under her
cloak and in her hand.
DIFFERENT METHODS OF CATCHING KANGAROOS.
Imagining several parties of this kind, headed by one of the young men,
to be moving through the woods, let us follow them and watch their mode
of procuring and cooking their different varieties of food.
MANNER OF HUNTING A KANGAROO SINGLY.
The moment an Australian savage commences his day's hunting his whole
manner and appearance undergo a wondrous change: his eyes, before heavy
and listless, brighten up, and are never for a moment fixed on one
object; his gait and movements, which were indolent and slow, become
quick and restless yet noiseless; he moves along with a rapid stealthy
pace, his glance roving from side to side in a vigilant uneasy manner,
arising from his eagerness to detect signs of game and his fears of
hidden foes. The earth, the water, the trees, the skies, each are in turn
subjected to a rigid scrutiny, and from the most insignificant
circumstances he deduces omens. His head is held erect and his progress
is uncertain, in a moment his pace is checked, he stands in precisely the
position of motion as if suddenly transfixed, nothing about him stirs but
his eyes, they glance uneasily from side to side whilst the head and
every muscle seem immoveable; but the white eyeballs may be seen in rapid
motion, whilst all his faculties are concentrated, and his whole soul is
absorbed in the senses of sight and hearing. His wives, who are at some
distance behind him, the moment they see him assume this attitude fall to
the ground as if they had been shot; their children cower by them, and
their little faces express an earnestness and anxiousness which is far
beyond their years; at length a suppressed whistle is given by one of the
women, which denotes that she sees a kangaroo near her husband. All is
again silence and quietude; and an unpractised European would ride within
a few yards of the group and not perceive a living thing.
Looking about a hundred yards to the right of the native, you will see a
kangaroo erect upon its hind legs and supported by its tail; it is reared
to its utmost height, so that its head is between five and six feet above
the ground--its short fore-paws hang by its side, its ears are pointed,
it is listening as carefully as the native, and you see a little head
peering out from its pouch to enquire what has alarmed its mother; but
the native moves not, you cannot tell whether it is a human being or the
charred trunk of a burnt tree which is before you, and for several
minutes the whole group preserve their relative position; at length the
kangaroo becomes reassured, drops upon its fore-paws, gives an awkward
leap or two, and goes on feeding, the little inhabitant of its pouch
stretching its head farther out, tasting the grass its mother is eating,
and evidently debating whether or not it is safe to venture out of its
resting place and gamble about amongst the green dewy herbage.
Meantime the native moves not until the kangaroo, having two or three
times resumed the attitude of listening, and having like a monkey
scratched its side with its fore-paw, at length once more abandons itself
in perfect security to its feed, and playfully smells and rubs its little
one. Now the watchful savage, keeping his body unmoved, fixes the spear
first in the throwing-stick, and then raises his arms in the attitude of
throwing, from which they are never again moved until the kangaroo dies
or runs away; his spear being properly secured, he advances slowly and
stealthily towards his prey, no part moving but his legs; whenever the
kangaroo looks round he stands motionless in the position he is in when
it first raises its head, until the animal, again assured of its safety,
gives a skip or two and goes on feeding; again the native advances, and
this scene is repeated many times until the whistling spear penetrates
the devoted animal; then the wood rings with shouts; women and children
all join pell-mell in the chase; the kangaroo, weak from the loss of
blood, and embarrassed by the long spear which catches in the brushwood
as it flies, at length turns on its pursuers, and to secure its rear
places its back against a tree, preparing at the same time to rend open
the breast and entrails of its pursuer by seizing him in its fore-paws
and kicking with its hind legs and claws; but the wily native keeps clear
of so murderous an embrace, and from the distance of a few yards throws
spears into its breast until the exhausted animal falls and is then soon
despatched; when, with the assistance of his wives, he takes its forelegs
over his left, and the hind legs over his right shoulder, and totters
with his burden to some convenient resting place, where they can enjoy
their meal.
HUNTING IN PARTIES IN THE BUSH.
The chase of the kangaroo conducted by a number of natives is a much more
lively and noisy affair, but it is not to my taste nearly so interesting.
When a single native hunts you see the whole energy and perseverance of
which a savage is capable called forth, and his graceful movements,
cautious advance, the air of quietude and repose which pervade his frame
when his prey is alarmed, all involuntarily call forth your admiration
and compel you to murmur to yourself, "how beautiful, how very
beautiful." But where a party hunt there is more bustle and animation in
the scene; and this kind of hunting is called "Yowart-a-kaipoon," or
kangaroo-surrounding. The animals which are to be killed by a party who
proceed for this purpose are either surprised in a thick bushy place,
where they have retired to lie down in the heat of the day, or else in an
open plain; in the former case they are tracked to their retreat, and the
party then encircling it first ascertain that they have not quitted it;
as each native takes up his position he gives a low whistle, and when the
blockade is completed they fire the bushes; the frighted animals now fly
from the flames in the direction of the open plains, but no sooner do
they reach the outskirts of the wood than the bushes are fired in the
direction in which they are running, and they are driven back by loud
calls and terrific cries, which augment their terror, and they run wildly
about; until, becoming maddened by fear, they make a rush through the
midst of their enemies, who allow but few of their victims to escape.
IN THE PLAINS.
When kangaroos are surrounded upon a plain the point generally chosen is
an open bottom surrounded by wood; each native has his position assigned
him by some of the elder ones, and a great deal of art and caution are
sometimes required to gain it; for this end they avail themselves of
every inequality of the ground, of every bush, of every shrub, and as
there are so many witnesses of their skill and cunning they put forth all
their art to approach as near the kangaroos as possible without
disturbing them, and thus the circle narrows in around the unconscious
animals, till at last some one of them becomes alarmed and bounds away,
but ere it has proceeded many yards its flight is arrested by a savage
with fearful yells; terrified it sits down with its frightened comrades
to look for a means of escape, but armed natives brandishing their spears
and raising loud cries come running in upon them from every side; and ere
the animals have recovered the first moments of terror and surprise a
slaughter has already commenced, which seldom terminates before the
greater number of them have fallen.
These great public hunts or battues are conducted under certain rules.
The proprietor of the land must have invited the other natives, and must
be present himself, for should these regulations be violated a very
bloody fight is certain to take place. The first spear which strikes a
kangaroo determines whose property the dead animal is to be; it being no
matter how slight the wound may have been; even if a boy threw the spear
the rule holds good, and if the animal killed is one which by their laws
a boy is not allowed to eat, then his right passes on to his father or
eldest male relation. The cries of the hunters, as they ring through the
ancient woods, are very expressive and beautiful, each different
intonation belonging to a particular period of the hunt. And what renders
them peculiarly effective is that, instead of beginning as we always do
with a soft aspiration, as in Hollo, Ho, etc., their cries always
commence with a harsh sound, as kau; and this circumstance enables them
to talk at a great distance so as to be perfectly intelligible to one
another. Sometimes in deep wooded valleys I have heard gentle fairy-like
sounds coming down from the heights, and rendered so soft and sweet by
distance that one might readily have fancied them to be supernatural, yet
the natives with me readily understood them, and shouted back their
reply: this harsh commencement of their shout gives one also a terrible
start when surprised in a murderous attack.
HUNTING KANGAROO BY THE TRACKS.
Four other modes of taking kangaroos are practised by the natives: these
are, catching them in nets, in pitfalls, lying in wait near their
watering places until they come to drink, and constantly following their
tracks until the animals are so wearied out that they will allow the
huntsman to approach near enough to spear them. Of these four modes the
last two are the most interesting, and the former is thus practised: in a
dry district, where numerous animals congregate from a great distance to
drink at a solitary water, the huntsman constructs a rude shelter in
which for hours he remains concealed and motionless until the thirsty
animals approach; kangaroos, cockatoos, pigeons, and all other beings
that run and fly are in this case indiscriminately sacrificed, and the
patient endurance of the hunter is generally richly rewarded by the booty
he obtains.
But the mode of tracking a kangaroo until it is wearied out is the one
which beyond all others excites the admiration of the natives; this calls
out every qualification prized by savages: skill in tracking, endurance
of hunger and thirst, unwearied bodily exertion, and lasting
perseverance. To perform this feat a native starts upon the tracks of a
kangaroo, which he follows until he sights it, when it flies timidly
before him; again he pursues the track, and again the animal bounds from
him; and this is repeated until nightfall, when the native lights his
fire and sleeps upon the track; with the first light of day the hunt is
resumed, and towards the close of the second day, or in the course of the
third, the kangaroo falls a victim to its pursuer. None but a skilful
huntsman in the pride of youth and strength can perform this feat, and
one who has frequently practised it always enjoys great renown amongst
his fellows.
COOKING A KANGAROO.
Before they commence cooking the kangaroo an incision is made round the
base of the tail to the bone, and another incision skin deep round the
tip. The skin is then pulled away from the other part with all the sinews
of the tail attached to it, and these are drawn carefully out and at once
rolled round the dowuk, so as to keep them stretched: their future use is
either to sew cloaks and bags, or to make spears.
Two modes of cooking the kangaroo are common; the first is to make an
oven by digging a hole in the sand, in which a fire is lighted; when the
sand is well heated and a large heap of ashes is collected the hole is
scraped out and the kangaroo is placed in it, skin and all; it is then
covered over with ashes, and a slow fire is kept up above it; when
sufficiently baked it is taken out and laid upon its back; the first
incision is made directly down from between the forearms to the bottom of
the abdomen, the intestines are then removed, and the whole of the juice
or gravy is left in the body of the animal. This is carefully taken out
and the body is then cut up and eaten.
The other mode is simply to kill the kangaroo and then to broil the
different portions of it on the fire: certain parts are considered great
delicacies, and these the young men are forbidden to eat; such are the
blood, the entrails, and the marrow. The blood is always carefully
collected in one of the intestines so as to form a long sausage and is
afterwards eaten by the most influential man present.
METHODS OF TAKING AND COOKING FISH.
It will be seen from the foregoing list that the smaller sorts of fish
eaten by the natives are very numerous: there are however several kinds
which from superstitious prejudices they will not touch; amongst these
are the Bamba, or stingray. I should here observe that these prejudices
are local, and I have seen them reject at one portion of the continent
articles of food which at a distant part they will eat readily.
Three modes of taking fish are commonly practised: spearing them;
catching them by means of a weir; and taking them in a net. A party of
natives spearing fish in one of their large shallow estuaries is an
extremely picturesque sight; they follow all the tortuous windings of the
fish they are pursuing, as it darts about in the water, with great
rapidity; and, the object of their pursuit being concealed from a distant
spectator, they appear to be running about in the sea and dashing up the
foam for no conceivable cause or reason. Notwithstanding the speed they
are running with and the smallness of the object, in striking they rarely
miss their aim. In deep rivers or in the sea the mode of spearing fish
varies according to the circumstances of the case; sometimes it is done
by diving, sometimes by sitting on a rock or tree and watching them as
they pass underneath; but in all cases astonishment is excited to see the
celerity and accuracy with which the eye and hand act in the nicest
unison.
Weirs are only constructed across places which are left nearly dry at
low-water, or when the floods subside; and the way in which fish are
taken in the net offers nothing remarkable.
METHODS OF COOKING FISH.
If the fish are not cooked by being merely thrown on the fire and broiled
they dress them in a manner worthy of being adopted by the most civilized
nations; this is called "Yudarn dookoon," or "tying-up cooking." A piece
of thick and tender paperbark is selected and torn into an oblong form;
the fish is laid in this, and the bark wrapped round it as paper is
folded round a cutlet; strings formed of grass are then wound tightly
about the bark and fish, which is then slowly baked in heated sand
covered with hot ashes; when it is completed the bark is opened and
serves as a dish: it is of course full of juice and gravy, not a drop of
which has escaped. Several of the smaller sorts of freshwater fish, in
size and taste resembling white-bait, are really delicious when cooked in
this manner; they occasionally also dress pieces of kangaroo and other
meats in the same way.
FEASTING ON A STRANDED WHALE.
A whale is the greatest delicacy that a native can partake of, and,
whilst standing beside the giant frame of one of these monsters of the
deep, he can only be compared to a mouse standing before a huge
plum-cake; in either case the mass of the food compared to that of the
consumer is enormous. It is impossible for civilized man to enter into
the feelings of the savage under these circumstances, for he has never
been similarly situated. He never has had such a quantity of food that he
doats on placed at once before him; hence when a native proprietor of an
estate in Australia finds a whale thrown ashore upon his property his
whole feelings undergo a sudden revulsion. Instead of being churlishly
afraid of the slightest aggression on his property his heart expands with
benevolence, and he longs to see his friends about him; so he falls to
work with his wives and kindles large fires to give notice of the joyful
event.
This duty being performed, he rubs himself all over with the blubber,
then anoints his favourite wives, and thus prepared cuts his way through
the blubber into the flesh or beef, the grain of which is about as firm
as a goose-quill, of this he selects the nicest morsels, and either
broils them on the fire or cooks them as kabobs by cutting them into
small pieces and spitting them on a pointed stick.
By and bye other natives come gaily trooping in from all quarters: by
night they dance and sing, and by day they eat and sleep, and for days
this revelry continues unchecked, until they at last fairly eat their way
into the whale, and you see them climbing in and about the stinking
carcase, choosing tit-bits. In general the natives are very particular
about not eating meat that is fly-blown or tainted, but when a whale is
in question this nicety of appetite vanishes. I attribute this to their
disliking in the first instance to leave the carcase, and then gradually
getting accustomed to its smell; but whatever may be the reason they
remain by the carcase for many days, rubbed from head to foot with
stinking blubber, gorged to repletion with putrid meat, out of temper
from indigestion, and therefore engaged in constant frays, suffering from
a cutaneous disorder by high feeding, and altogether a disgusting
spectacle. There is no sight in the world more revolting than to see a
young and gracefully formed native girl stepping out of the carcase of a
putrid whale. When they at last quit their feast they carry off as much
as they can stagger under, to eat upon the way, and to take as a rarity
to their distant friends.
MODE OF KILLING SEALS AND WILD DOGS.
Killing seals is, from the habits of these animals, necessarily an
exciting species of hunting in the southern and western portions of the
continent. It is only enjoyed by the natives when they can surprise a
seal upon the beach or in the surf, or when they swim off to some of the
small rocky islands which are connected with the main by reefs, and are
at no great distance from it; they are themselves fond of this sport, and
the clambering about the wild rocks of their native shore, at one time
leaping from rock to rock, spearing fish that lie in the quiet pools, in
the next moment dashing into the boisterous surf to spear a large fish,
to battle with a seal, or to turn a turtle, cannot but be an exhilarating
occupation; and when to this we add that their steps are followed by a
wife and children, as dear to them as ours are to us, who are witnesses
of their agility and prowess, and who, when the game is killed, will help
to light the fire in which it is to be cooked, and drag it to the
resting-place, where the father romps with the little ones until the meal
is prepared, and that all this takes place in a climate so mild and
genial that a house is not necessary, we shall perhaps the less wonder
that it should be so difficult to induce a savage to embrace the customs
of civilized life.
There is nothing peculiar in their mode of killing wild dogs; puppies are
of course the greatest delicacy, and are often feasted on; they sometimes
however save these in order to keep them in a domesticated state, and in
this case one of the elder females of the family suckles them at her own
breast and soon grows almost as fond of them as of children. A dog is
baked whole in the same manner as a kangaroo; it is laid on its back in
the hole in the heated sand, and its nose, fore-paws and hind-paws are
left sticking out of the ashes which are scraped over it, so that it
bears rather a ludicrous appearance.
MODE OF KILLING TURTLE AND COCKATOOS.
The green turtle are surprised by the natives on the beach when they come
to lay their eggs, and are very rarely taken much to the south of Shark
Bay, but freshwater turtle are extremely abundant, and are in high season
about December and January. At this time the natives assemble near the
freshwater lakes and lagoons in large numbers; these natural reservoirs
are then shrunk to their lowest limits from evaporation and other causes,
and are thickly overgrown with reeds and rushes. Among these the natives
wade with stealthy pace, so stealthy that they even creep upon wild-fowl
and spear them. The habits of the turtle are to swim lazily along near
the surface of the water, about half immersed, biting and smelling at the
various aquatic plants which they pass, and turning their long ungainly
necks in all directions. When alarmed by the approach of a native the
turtle instantly sinks to the bottom like a stone, and its pursuer,
putting out his foot, the toes of which he uses to seize anything, just
as we do our fingers, gropes about with it in the weeds, until he feels
the turtle, and then, holding it to the ground, plunges his hands and
arms in and seizes his prey. I have known two or three of them to catch
fourteen turtle, none of which weighed less than one, and many of them as
much as two or three pounds, in the course of a very short time.
These freshwater turtle are cooked by being baked, shell and all, in the
hot ashes; when they are done a single pull removes the bottom shell, and
the whole animal remains in the upper one, which serves as a dish. They
are generally very fat, and are really delicate and delicious eating; the
natives are extremely fond of them, and the turtle season is looked
forward to by them as a very important period of the year.
BIRDS.
Birds form a very considerable article of food for the natives, and their
modes of killing them are so various that it would be impossible to
enumerate them all. Emus are killed in precisely the same manner as
kangaroos, but as they are more prized by the natives a greater degree of
excitement prevails when an emu is slain; shout succeeds shout, and the
distant natives take up the cry until it is sometimes re-echoed for
miles: yet the feast which follows the death is a very exclusive one; the
flesh is by far too delicious to be made a common article of food, hence
heavy penalties are pronounced against young men and unauthorized persons
who venture to touch it, and these are invariably rigidly enforced.
KILLING COCKATOOS.
Perhaps as fine a sight as can be seen in the whole circle of native
sports is the killing cockatoos with the kiley, or boomerang. A native
perceives a large flight of cockatoos in a forest which encircles a
lagoon; the expanse of water affords an open clear space above it,
unencumbered with trees, but which raise their gigantic forms all around,
more vigorous in their growth from the damp soil in which they flourish;
and in their leafy summits sit a countless number of cockatoos, screaming
and flying from tree to tree, as they make their arrangements for a
night's sound sleep. The native throws aside his cloak so that he may not
even have this slight covering to impede his motions, draws his kiley
from his belt, and with a noiseless, elastic step approaches the lagoon,
creeping from tree to tree, from bush to bush, and disturbing the birds
as little as possible; their sentinels however take the alarm, the
cockatoos farthest from the water fly to the trees near its edge, and
thus they keep concentrating their forces as the native advances; they
are aware that danger is at hand but are ignorant of its nature. At
length the pursuer almost reaches the edge of the water, and the scared
cockatoos, with wild cries, spring into the air; at the same instant the
native raises his right hand high over his shoulder, and, bounding
forward with his utmost speed for a few paces to give impetus to his
blow, the kiley quits his hand as if it would strike the water, but when
it has almost touched the unruffled surface of the lake it spins upwards
with inconceivable velocity, and with the strangest contortions. In vain
the terrified cockatoos strive to avoid it; it sweeps wildly and
uncertainly through the air, and so eccentric are its motions that it
requires but a slight stretch of the imagination to fancy it endowed with
life, and with fell swoops is in rapid pursuit of the devoted birds, some
of whom are almost certain to be brought screaming to the earth.
But the wily savage has not yet done with them. He avails himself of the
extraordinary attachment which these birds have for one another, and,
fastening a wounded one to a tree, so that its cries may induce its
companions to return, he watches his opportunity by throwing his kiley or
spear to add another bird or two to the booty he has already obtained.
MODE OF KILLING WILD-FOWL.
The various kinds of wild-fowl with which the rivers and lagoons of
Australia abound afford a never-failing supply of food to the natives,
and many are the arts to which they have recourse to entrap these wary
birds. During the period of the moulting season they catch many black
swans. Some of the young men lie for hours in ambush on the banks until
the unconscious swans have ventured so far into shallow water that they
can run round them and cut off their retreat. When this auspicious moment
arrives, with loud shouts the men dash in, and whilst one party
intercepts the birds, so that they cannot get into the deeps, a second
soon runs them down. In the same manner they take the young cygnets; and
these I believe to be as good eating and as delicate an article of food
as any country can produce.
It is also an interesting sight to see the natives creep after wild-fowl,
and under cover of the reeds and bushes get so near that they can either
spear them or catch them with a noose. A reedy lagoon lies at your feet,
almost surrounded by rocky cliffs and dusky woods; there are some small
open spaces of water, but generally it is so thickly overgrown with high
reeds that it looks rather like a swampy wood than a lake; in the
distance you see curling up a thin cloud of blue smoke, which indicates
that a native encampment is at hand. The forms of many wild-fowl are seen
swimming about among the reeds, for a moment caught sight of, and in the
next lost in the dusky green of the vegetation. Every now and then a
small party of them rise up, and after winging their way two or three
times round the lagoon, at the same time giving a series of their quack,
quack, which are loudly responded to from the recesses of the reeds, they
again settle down in another part of it.
This circumstance and a few other signs induce a sportsman to suspect
that there is some mischief afloat, and his doubts are soon set at rest:
upon some bough of a tree, which stretches far out over the water and
thus affords its occupant a view of all that is passing in the lake
below, he sees extended the form of an aged native, his white locks
fluttering in the breeze; he is too old to take a part in the sport that
is going on, but watches every movement with the most intense interest,
and by well-known signs directs the movements of the hunters, who may now
be seen creeping noiselessly through the water, and at times they appear
so black and still that even a practised huntsman doubts for a moment
whether it is a man or the stump of a tree which he looks on. The natives
are sometimes very successful in this kind of hunting: I have known a
single man spear or noose ten wild-fowl, of different sorts, in an hour
and a half or two hours' time.
One very dexterous feat which the natives perform is to kill a bird as it
flies from the nest. This is executed by two men, one of whom, placing
himself under the nest, throws a spear through its centre, so as to hit
the bird in the breast, which, frightened and slightly wounded, flies
out, and is then struck to the ground by the dow-uk, which the other
native hurls at it as it quits the tree. They are such good shots with
these short, heavy sticks that pigeons, quails, and even the smallest
birds, are usually knocked over with them; and I have often seen them
kill a pigeon with a spear, at the distance of about thirty paces.
MODES OF COOKING BIRDS.
Birds are generally cooked by plucking them and throwing them on the
fire, certain portions of the entrails being considered a great delicacy:
but when they wish to dress a bird very nicely they first of all draw it
and cook the entrails separately; a triangle is then formed round the
bird by three red-hot pieces of stick, against which ashes are placed.
Hot coals are also stuffed into the inside of the bird, and it is thus
rapidly cooked and left full of gravy. Wild-fowl dressed in this way on a
clean piece of bark form as good a dish as I have ever eaten.
OPOSSUM HUNTING.
Opossum hunting is pursued either by day or during a moonlight night. A
stranger cannot but be favourably impressed with regard to the quickness
of a native in discovering whether or not an opossum has ascended a tree.
The savage carelessly walks up to some massive trunk which he thinks
bears a suspicious appearance, his hands are placed thoughtlessly behind
his back, whilst his dark eye glances over the bark; suddenly it is for
one moment stationary, and he looks eagerly at the tree, for he has
detected the holes made by the nails of an opossum in its ascent; he now
seeks for one of these foot-marks, which has a little sand attached to
it, and gently blows the sand, but it sticks together, and does not
easily move away, this is a proof that the animal has climbed the tree
the same morning, for otherwise the sand would have been dried up by the
heat of the sun, and, not being held together by dampness, would have
been readily swept away before his breath. Having by this examination of
signs, which an unskilled European in vain strains his eyes to detect,
convinced himself that the opossum is in some hole of the tree, the
native pulls his hatchet from his girdle and, cutting a small notch in
the bark about four feet from the ground, he places the great toe of his
right foot in it, throws his right arm round the tree, and with his left
hand sticks the point handle of the hatchet into the bark as high up as
he can reach, and thus forms a stay to drag himself up with; having made
good this step he cuts another for his left foot, and thus proceeds until
he has ascended to the hole where the opossum is hid, which is then
compelled by smoke, or by being poked out, to quit its hiding-place,
when, the native catching hold of its tail, dashes it down on the ground
and quietly descends after it. As the opossum gives a very severe and
painful bite the natives are careful to lay hold of it in such a manner
as to run the least possible danger of being seized by its teeth.
Opossum hunting by moonlight, excepting in the beauty of the spectacle,
offers no feature different from what I have above described; the dusky
forms of the natives moving about in the gloomy woods and gazing up into
the trees to detect an animal feeding, whilst in the distance natives
with firesticks come creeping after them, is a picturesque sight, and it
is also pretty to see the dark body of the native against the moonlight
as he climbs the tree, forcing the poor opossum to retreat to the very
end of some branch, whence he is shaken off or knocked down with a stick.
The natives themselves like these moonlight expeditions and speak with
enthusiasm of them. They are particularly fond of spearing fish at
certain seasons of the year, in which case they go along the shoal water
with a light, and proceed exactly in the manner still practised in
Scotland and Ireland.
CATCHING FROGS. METHOD OF TAKING SHELLFISH.
The season of the year in which the natives catch the greatest quantity
of frogs and freshwater shellfish is when the swamps are nearly dried up;
these animals then bury themselves in holes in the mud, and the native
women with their long sticks and long thin arms, which they plunge up to
the shoulder in the slime, manage to drag them out; at all seasons
however they catch some of these animals, but in summer a whole troop of
native women may be seen paddling about in a swamp, slapping themselves
to kill the mosquitoes and sandflies, and every now and then plunging
their arms down into the mud, and dragging forth their prey. I have often
seen them with ten or twelve pounds weight of frogs in their bag.
Frogs are cooked on a slow fire of wood ashes. They are then held in one
hand by the hind legs, and a dexterous pinch with the finger and thumb of
the other at once removes the lower portion of the intestines. The
remainder of the animal is then taken at a mouthful and fairly eaten from
the head to the toes.
The freshwater shellfish vary in size from that of a prawn to a large
crayfish; the smallest are the best, and when nicely roasted there is no
difference in taste between them and a shrimp. It is worthy of remark
that the natives in the south-western part of Australia will not touch
freshwater mussels, which are very abundant in the rivers, whilst in the
north-western part of the continent they form a staple article of food.
GRUBS AND WALLABIES.
Grubs are principally procured by the natives from the Xanthorrhoea or
grass-tree, but they are also found in wattle-trees, and in dead timber;
those found in the grass-tree have a fragrant aromatic flavour and taste
very like a nice nut. Their presence in a tree is thus ascertained: if
the top of the tree is observed to be dead the native gives it a few
sharp kicks with his foot, when, if it contains any barde or grubs, it
begins to give, and if this takes place he pushes the tree over, and,
gradually breaking it to pieces with his hammer, he extracts the grubs,
of which sometimes more than a hundred are found in a single tree.
Until the top of the tree is dead it is not a proper receptacle for these
animals. The natives are therefore in the habit of breaking off the tops
of the grass-trees on their land at a particular season of the year in
order that they may have an abundance of this highly-prized article of
food. If two or more men have a right to hunt over the same portion of
ground, and one of them breaks off the tops of certain trees, by their
laws the grubs in these are his property and no one else has a right to
touch the tree. No mistake on this point can occur, for if the top of the
tree dies naturally it still remains in its original position, whereas a
native who thus prepares the tree knocks it off altogether; an instance
occurred at King George's Sound of a native travelling between thirty and
forty miles to lay a complaint before the Resident that another had been
guilty of this unpardonable breach of honesty, and, notwithstanding it
had been clearly brought home to him, still stoutly refused to make any
amends.
When there is a grub in a wattle-tree its diseased state, which produces
excrescences, soon betrays this circumstance to the watchful eyes of a
native, and an animal much larger than those found in the grass-tree is
soon extracted; they seldom however find more than one or two of these in
the same tree.
Grubs are either eaten raw or roasted; they are best roasted tied up in a
piece of bark in the manner in which I have before stated that they cook
their fish. If the natives are taunted with eating such a disgusting
species of food as these grubs appear to Europeans they invariably retort
by accusing us of eating raw oysters, which they regard with perfect
horror.
HUNTING THE SMALLER ANIMALS.
The smaller species of animals are either caught by surprising them in
their seats or by burning the bush. A native hunting for food has his
eyes in constant motion and nothing escapes them; he sees a kangaroo-rat
Sitting in a bush, and he walks towards it as if about to pass it
carelessly, but suddenly, when on one side of it, he stamps on the bush
with all his force, and crushes the little animal to death; should it be
rapid enough in its movements to avoid this blow he hurls his dow-uk at
it as it scampers off, and should he not hit it he runs after and tracks
it to some dead hollow tree, lying on the ground, in which it has taken
shelter, and with the aid of his spear, which is about ten feet long, he
draws it out.
Another very ingenious mode of taking wallaby and the smaller kind of
kangaroos is to select a thick bushy place where there are plenty of
these animals; the bushes are then broken down in a circle round the spot
where they intend to hunt, so as to form a space of broken scrub about
ten feet wide all round a thick bush, they thus not only destroy the runs
of the animals but form with the fallen bushes a place which so
embarrasses and entangles them that they find great difficulty in passing
it; indeed when these preparations have been made the natives fire the
bush and the frightened animals, finding their runs stopped up, rush into
the fallen branches, where every jump which they make upon their hind
legs only involves them in greater difficulties, so that they fall an
easy prey to their pursuers.
Some of the smaller animals such as the dal-gyte, an animal about the
size of a weasel, burrow in the earth; these the natives surprise when
they are feeding or dig them from their burrows. They are all cooked by
having their fur singed off and being roasted on the fire; to the taste
of a native the skinning a small animal would be an abomination, and I
must really confess that a kangaroo-rat, nicely singed and cooked by
them, is not a bad dish for a hungry traveller.
Although the natives could in many districts procure native salt, and
most certainly from its abundance cannot be unacquainted with it, they
never use it until they have seen Europeans do so, and even then do not
at first like it. They also dislike mustard, sauces, etc., when they
first eat them, and indeed nothing can be more ludicrous than their
grimaces are the first time mustard is given to them upon a piece of
meat.
ROOTS EATEN BY NATIVES. EDIBLE ROOTS AND SEEDS.
The roots eaten by the natives belong to the following genera:
Dioscorea, two species.
Haemadorum, several species, as the Mene, Ngool-ya, Mudja, etc. etc.
Geranium, several species.
Boerhaavia, two species.
Typha, two species.
Orchis, several species.
RULES FOR GATHERING ROOTS AND PLANTS.
Some of these are in season in every period of the year and the natives
regulate their visits to the different districts accordingly. Those
plants which grow in a stiff soil cannot be dug up by their implements
without great difficulty in the heat of the dry season, but those which
grow in a loose sandy soil can be obtained at all times. The natives have
however a law that no plant bearing seeds is to be dug up after it has
flowered; they then call them (for example) the mother of Bohn, the
mother of Mudja, etc.; and so strict are they in their observance of this
rule that I have never seen a native violate it unless requested by an
European, and even then they betray a great dislike to do so.
The abundance of these roots varies, of course, with the nature of the
soil, etc., but when there is a scarcity of any one of them this is amply
provided for by the abundance of others. In the Province of Victoria, as
already stated, I have seen tracts of land, several square miles in
extent, so thickly studded with holes where the natives had been digging
up yams (Dioscorea) that it was difficult to walk across it. Again, in
the sandy desert country which surrounds for many miles the town of
Perth, in Western Australia, the different species of Haemadorum are very
plentiful.
GATHERING AND COOKING ROOTS. MODE OF COOKING AND PREPARING THEM.
It is generally considered the province of women to dig roots, and for
this purpose they carry a long pointed stick which is held in the right
hand and driven firmly into the ground, where it is shaken so as to
loosen the earth, which is scooped up and thrown out with the fingers of
the left hand, and in this manner they dig with great rapidity. But the
labour in proportion to the amount obtained is great. To get a yam about
half an inch in circumference and a foot in length they have to dig a
hole above a foot square and two feet in depth; a considerable portion of
the time of the women and children is therefore passed in this
employment.
If the men are absent upon any expedition the females are left in charge
of one who is old or sick; and in traversing the bush you often stumble
on a large party of them, scattered about in the forest, digging roots,
and collecting the different species of fungus.
The roots are eaten raw or roasted in the fire; in either case they are,
most of them, very good. Some have the taste of a mild onion, and others
have almost the taste and appearance of a small English potato, but of
these only a single root is attached to each plant: the mene has rather
an acid taste and when eaten alone is said, by the natives, to cause
dysentery; they never use it in the southern districts without pounding
it between two stones and sprinkling over it a few pinches of an earth
which they consider extremely good and nutritious; they then pound the
mould and root together into a paste, and swallow it as a bonne bouche,
the noxious qualities of the plant being destroyed by the earth.
Many other roots are pounded between flat stones into a paste and are
then made into a cake and baked. The two roots which taste the best, when
cooked in this way, are the jee-ta and yunjid.
The former of these resembles in appearance and taste the unripe seeds of
Indian corn; it is in season in June and is really very palatable. The
latter is the root of a species of flag, and consists of a case enclosing
a multitude of tender filaments, with nodules of farinaceous matter
adhering to them. These are collected into a mass by pounding the root,
and the cake formed from the paste is very nice. The natives must be
admitted to bestow a sort of cultivation upon this root, as they
frequently burn the leaves of the plant in the dry seasons in order to
improve it.
EDIBLE FUNGI AND GUMS.
The different kinds of fungus are very good. In certain seasons of the
year they are abundant and the natives eat them greedily.
Kwon-nat is the kind of gum which most abounds and is considered the
nicest article of food. It is a species of gum-tragacynth. In the summer
months the acacias growing in swampy plains are literally loaded with
this gum, and the natives assemble in numbers to partake of this
favourite esculent. As but few places afford a sufficient supply of food
to support a large assemblage of persons these Kwon-nat grounds are
generally the spots at which their annual barter meetings are held, and
during these fun, frolic, and quarrelling of every description prevail.
POISONOUS NUTS.
No article of food used by the natives is more deserving of notice than
the by-yu. This name is applied to the pulp of the nut of a species of
palm which, in its natural state, acts as a most violent emetic and
cathartic; the natives themselves consider it as a rank poison: they
however are acquainted with a very artificial method of preparing it, by
which it is completely deprived of its noxious qualities and then becomes
an agreeable and nutritious article of food. Europeans who are not
acquainted with this mode of preparing the nut, the stones of which they
find lying about the fireplaces of the natives, are frequently tempted to
eat it in its natural state, but they invariably pay a severe penalty for
the mistake. The following extract, from Captain Cook's * first voyage,
gives one instance of this:
(*Footnote. Volume 2 page 624.)
The third sort, which, like the second, is found only in the Northern
parts, seldom grows more than ten feet high, with small pinnated leaves,
resembling those of some kind of fern; it bears no cabbage, but a
plentiful crop of nuts, about the size of a large chestnut, but rounder.
As the hulls of these were found scattered round the places where the
Indians had made their fires it was taken for granted that they were fit
to eat; however those who made the experiment paid dear for their
knowledge to the contrary, for they operated both as an emetic and
cathartic, with great violence: still however it was not doubted but they
were eaten by the Indians, and, in order to determine this more clearly,
they were carried to the hogs, who might be supposed to have a
constitution as strong as the Indians, although the ship's people had
not. The hogs ate them indeed, and for some time apparently without
suffering any inconvenience, but in about a week they were so much
disordered that two of them died; the rest were recovered with great
difficulty. It is probable however that the poisonous quality of these
nuts may lie in the juice, like that of the cassada of the West Indies,
and that the pulp, when dried, may be not only wholesome but nutritious.
...
MODE OF RENDERING THEM INNOXIOUS.
The native women collect the nuts from the palms in the month of March,
and, having placed them in some shallow pool of water, they leave them to
soak for several days. When they have ascertained that the by-yu has been
immersed in water for a sufficient time they dig, in a dry sandy place,
holes which they call mor-dak; these holes are about the depth that a
person's arms can reach, and one foot in diameter; they line them with
rushes and fill them up with the nuts, over which they sprinkle a little
sand, and then cover the holes nicely over with the tops of the
grass-tree; in about a fortnight the pulp which encases the nut becomes
quite dry, and it is then fit to eat, but if eaten before that it
produces the effects already described. The natives eat this pulp both
raw and roasted; in the latter state they taste quite as well as a
chestnut. The process which these nuts undergo in the hands of the
natives has no effect upon the kernel, which still acts both as a strong
emetic and cathartic.
I have taken some trouble to ascertain if any traditional notion exists
amongst the natives which would in any way account for their having first
obtained a knowledge of the means by which they could render the
deleterious pulp of the Zamia nut a useful article of food; but in this,
as in all other similar instances, they are very unwilling to confess
their ignorance of a thing, and rather than do so will often invent a
tradition. Hence many intelligent persons have raised most absurd
theories and have committed lamentable errors.
ROVING HABITS DEPENDANT ON FOOD.
The other kinds of food which I have mentioned on the list scarcely
require a particular description. They are collected by the people as
they rove from spot to spot, and are rather used as adjuncts to help out
a meal than as staple articles of provision; several of them are however
much liked by the natives, and they always regulate the visits to their
hunting grounds so as to be at any part which plentifully produces a
certain sort of food at the time this article is in full season: this
roving habit produces a similar character in the kangaroos, emus, and
other sorts of game which are never driven more from one part than from
another. In fact they are kept in a constant state of movement from place
to place; but directly a European settles down in the country his
constant residence in one spot soon sends the animals away from it, and
although he may in no other way interfere with the natives the mere
circumstance of his residing there does the man on whose land he settles
the injury of depriving him of his ordinary means of subsistence.
EDIBLE PRODUCTIONS VARY IN DIPFERENT DISTRICTS. COMMON RIGHTS IN CERTAIN
FOOD.
If the land of any native is deficient in any particular article of food,
such as, by-yu, mun-gyte (Banksia flowers) etc., he makes a point of
visiting some neighbour whose property is productive in this particular
article at the period in which it is in perfection; and there are even
some tracts of land which abound in gum, kwon-nat, etc., which numerous
families appear to have an acknowledged right to visit at the period of
the year when this article is in season, although they are not allowed to
come there at any other time. This is a curious point and might throw
some further light upon the subject of their families or lines of
descent.
It must be borne in mind that the articles of food I have enumerated in
this chapter belong only to a particular district of about two hundred
miles in extent, for every degree of latitude some articles would
disappear from the list, whilst other new ones would enter into it. For
instance on the north-west coast they eat a species of oyster (unio) the
almonds of the pandanus, wild grapes, guavas, the excellent fruit of a
species of capparis, and many other articles which are not known upon the
south-west coast; but these are procured and cooked in the same manner as
the articles which I have already enumerated. My object being merely to
give such an outline as would enable the reader to understand well the
mode of life of an Australian savage, I did not think such particular
details necessary as I should have been led into, had I enumerated all
the sorts of food which I have seen eaten by the natives in Australia.