Volume II Part 23 (1/2)
GRUBS AND WALLABIES.
Grubs are princ.i.p.ally procured by the natives from the Xanthorrhoea or gra.s.s-tree, but they are also found in wattle-trees, and in dead timber; those found in the gra.s.s-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 gra.s.s-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 circ.u.mstance to the watchful eyes of a native, and an animal much larger than those found in the gra.s.s-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 pa.s.s 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 s.p.a.ce 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 embarra.s.ses and entangles them that they find great difficulty in pa.s.sing 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 circ.u.mference 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 pa.s.sed 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 mult.i.tude of tender filaments, with nodules of farinaceous matter adhering to them. These are collected into a ma.s.s 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.