Volume II Part 22 (2/2)
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 sc.r.a.ped over it, so that it bears rather a ludicrous appearance.
MODE OF KILLING TURTLE AND c.o.c.kATOOS.
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 a.s.semble 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 pa.s.s, 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, sh.e.l.l and all, in the hot ashes; when they are done a single pull removes the bottom sh.e.l.l, 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 p.r.o.nounced against young men and unauthorized persons who venture to touch it, and these are invariably rigidly enforced.
KILLING c.o.c.kATOOS.
Perhaps as fine a sight as can be seen in the whole circle of native sports is the killing c.o.c.katoos with the kiley, or boomerang. A native perceives a large flight of c.o.c.katoos in a forest which encircles a lagoon; the expanse of water affords an open clear s.p.a.ce above it, unenc.u.mbered 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 c.o.c.katoos, 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 c.o.c.katoos 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 c.o.c.katoos, 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 c.o.c.katoos 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 s.p.a.ces 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 circ.u.mstance 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 pa.s.sing 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 ma.s.sive 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 Sh.e.l.lFISH.
The season of the year in which the natives catch the greatest quant.i.ty of frogs and freshwater sh.e.l.lfish 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 sh.e.l.lfish 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.
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