Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/88

83 of salt ere the advent of Europeans might be very well brought in as a plea by them for not making provision in anticipation of hard and hungry seasons. Since their intercourse with white men, however, that excuse is no longer tenable. Still, for all that, the same improvident habits continue to obtain.

The lyoors drag the lagoons for the delicious crayfish, which they catch by the pailful. These delicate little crustacæ are highly esteemed by the aborigines because of their piquant flavour, which we imagine to be entirely due to the fact of their eating them without other cleaning than the mere removal of the outer shell. These little things being in so much request, the lyoors devote a considerable portion of their time to catching them.

They prepare the net for this purpose by tying a hoop round the bottom edge and the two ends, which gives it the appearance of half an oval; the top of the net is eight feet long. It is worked by two women, each having a bag slung round her neck to receive the result of their labours. They go into shallow lagoons, one at each end of the net, and scrape it along the bottom. They do not make much disturbance in the water during the operation, as very little noise would send all the crayfish within hearing distance into their holes, which, of course, would entail so much lost labour. They do not take the net to the bank to empty it; they merely raise it every now and again, and remove whatever spoil it may contain to the bags round their respective necks, and so they continue until they have captured what they deem sufficient. An hour's scraping frequently results in as many of these crayfish as would fill a six gallon