Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/25

20 also eaten when young; a foot or eighteen inches long is the best size. It is very insipid to European palates, and we fancy it contains but a small modicum indeed of nutritious matter; however, the natives are extremely partial to it, and therefore consume it in vast quantities. In this green stage it is termed by the aborigines ioonty. The common, small flowered yellow water-lily, which so plentifully fringes most of the colonial lakes and lagoons, is another source from whence they derive a desirable addition to their diet. The roots of this plant are formed of many tubers, of about an inch and a half long by half an inch in diameter. The root of one plant will frequently yield as many tubers as a half-pint measure will contain. They are baked before being eaten, and are of a sweet mawkish taste, very gluey in appearance, not unlike what is termed a waxey potato. They are called lahoor by the natives.

The sow thistle, dandelion yam, and a trefoil which grows on country which at times is inundated during their respective seasons are consumed in vast quantity. To see the lyoores approaching the camp in the evenings, with each a great bundle of these green forage plants on her head, a stranger to their customs would imagine that they were providing the nightly fodder for a dairy of cows. They eat these herbs in a raw state by way of salad; the ioonty is also eaten uncooked.

Besides these they eat the larvae of several kinds of ants, some of which are tree-inhabiting insects, others are mound-raising ground ants. An immense grub also they consume in large quantities; it is two or three inches in length, and is found deep in the wood of the gum-tree. The natives are