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Rh they took care to keep themselves supplied with food each day. Had a stranger come suddenly upon their camps, when the natives were in a wild state, at any time during the day, he would have found them almost totally deserted. Had he inspected them, he would have found them inhabited by a few old people and children. But towards evening he would have observed blacks coming from all quarters, some laden with game, some with fish, and a few with a stick of firewood on their shoulders. Each had been away seeking food and necessaries for the supply of the camp. In times of peace, when they had no fear of enemies lurking about, they would move from place to place without caution. The men would go in a mob to have a grand battue among the kangaroos, which would be done by a number of men driving the animals into some corner where they could spear them as the creatures tried to pass them. The women would also go away in large numbers in canoes to fish; but they would take care to return to the camp before the arrival of their husbands, in order to have the fires lighted and some of the produce of their day's labor roasted for the hunters. The appetite of their husbands would probably not be so keen as that of the hunters who are proverbially named when hunger is mentioned; for, if successful in their day's sport, they would have made an astonishing meal long before reaching home. It is the custom of the blacks, when they catch a kangaroo, to roast and eat part of it on the spot. And here a remark may be made respecting the much talked of enormous eating of the blacks. This is accounted for by the way in which they live. As hunters, they would, at most, have a very precarious living, for sometimes they would be unsuccessful in their hunting, and their fishing would also fail. At such times they would have to allay hunger by eating some of the various vegetable productions which are common. The blacks are capable of enduring long fasts, and when they get food in abundance, they are very liable to exceed the usual limits; but let an Aboriginal be fed regularly every day, and it soon becomes apparent that he eats just as much as is sufficient for him. In fact his appetite is not at all out of the common."