Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/108

 Emus are frequently run down with dogs. They are sometimes trapped, during the dry weather, by digging a hole in a nearly dried-up swamp, where the birds are in the habit of drinking. The hole is about twenty feet in diameter, and made very muddy and soft, with a little water in the centre. When the birds wade in to drink, they get bogged, and are easily captured. If not actually smothered, they are very much exhausted with struggling. This trap, if at a distance from the camp, is visited every two or three days to remove the birds. The feathers are highly prized for making ornaments, the fat for anointing the body and hair, and the flesh for food. Emu is considered the greatest delicacy. It is eaten, however, only by the men and grey-haired women; young women and children are not allowed to partake of it. No reason is given for this rule. When the time for the emu to lay her eggs has arrived — which is marked, as has been elsewhere observed, by the star Canopus appearing a little above the horizon in the east at daybreak — every member of a tribe must return home, and no eggs must be taken from the grounds of a neighbouring tribe. If any person is caught trespassing and stealing the eggs, he or she can be put to death on the spot. The aborigines say that the emu is very ready to desert her nest, and if she observes yellow leeches crawling over her eggs before she lays the usual number, she immediately commences a new one, which accounts for many abandoned nests with only two or three eggs in them, instead of the usual dozen. The first egg of the emu is called 'purtæ wuuchuup,' meaning 'youngest,' because it is not only the smallest but the last to hatch, and is always at the bottom of the nest, covered by the others. The eggs are considered a great treat, and are cooked in hot ashes. The aborigines have a tradition respecting the existence at one time of some very large birds, which were incapable of flight, and resembled emus. They lived long ago, when the volcanic hills were in a state of eruption. The native name for them is 'meeheeruung parrinmall — 'big emu,' and they are described, hyperbolically, as so large that their 'heads were as high as the hills,' and so formidable that a kick from one of them would kill a man. These birds were much feared on account of their extraordinary courage, strength, and speed of foot. When one was seen, two of the bravest men of the tribe were ordered to kill it. As they dared not attack it on foot, they provided themselves with a great many spears, and climbed up a tree; and when the bird came to look at them, they speared it from above. The last specimen of this extinct bird was seen near the site of Hamilton. In all probability, skeletons will be some day