Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/131

126 CHAPTER XVI.

THEIR IGNORANCE OF INTOXICATING FLUIDS. OF A SWEET BEVERAGE WHICH THEY MANUFACTURE FROM taarp. Taarp AND HOW PROCURED. OF THEIR SONGS AND CORROBERIES.

Unlike most savage races these aborigines do not compound intoxicating drinks of any kind wherewith to muddle their unsophisticated brains or to induce false spirits; they, however, make a sweet and luscious beverage by mixing taarp with water, and this taarp is so highly esteemed by them they will go almost any distance, and put up with endless privations to procure it.

As an instance of the extreme fondness evinced by the aborigines for this sweet, we may say that even those employed on stations who can command abundance of sugar, will throw up their various occupations upon the least hint being promulgated that taarp has made its appearance, and walk themselves off with their belonings [sic] to the taarp grounds. Nothing in the shape of a bribe will tempt them to forego a chance of obtaining taarp, and no