Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/125

 twine of opossum fur, wound round his body) and sought the branch in which lay the opossum or flying squirrel, whose traces he had detected on the bark of the tree.

The wild dog had been tamed, and assisted in catching small game, such as kangaroo rats, bandicoots, &c. Birds' nests were an easy prey, and eggs or nestlings furnished food. For fishing there were nets, weirs, and spears. Often men would dive and spear fish under deep water clear enough to permit sight. Eel-spears had several prong- points. Governor Phillip found the natives at Port Jackson using fish-hooks made out of oyster-shells. A weed (a polygonum) which commonly grew near water was plucked, thrown in masses on the fire, submerged steaming in a pool, and had the effect of stupefying the fish, which, coming to the surface in that condition, were secured with- out trouble. In one part of Central Australia the leaves and twigs of a shrub called pidgery, or pituri, were dried, preserved in closely-woven bags, and bartered with other tribes. A small quantity had an exhilarating effect, and pidgery was highly prized. Sometimes weapons were bartered. Grass- tree, of the kind fit for spears, grew only in certain places, and the spears were exchanged with friendly tribes for boomerangs or clubs. Grubs found in trees or amongst rocks, gum, manna, iguanas, snakes, roots of many kinds, frogs, mushrooms, nuts, berries, seeds, and all four-footed or two-footed creatures, fell a prey. But no native would eat a snake which had not to his knowledge been prevented from biting itself in its agonies. Immediate suction was the remedy resorted to for a snake-bite. If alone, and bitten on a part to which he could not apply his own mouth, the sufferer on joining his friends, stoically died, deprecating useless attempts to contend with the inevitable.

On approaching a river which they wished to cross with bag and baggage, one or two men would detach themselves from the main band, select a tree from which to strip a sheet of bark, shape the bark, and carry it to the river. There it served as a canoe in which to transport the whole company by degrees. There was no accomplishment which more surprised, or was more useful to the Europeans, than the skill with which Australians tracked animals or men. Sir John Lubbock cites with admiration an incident