Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/299

 FOOD. 221 its scanty natural products in different localities, and at different seasons of the year. On this account the Port Lincoln natives are compelled sometimes to range up and down the sea-coast, looking for fish; sometimes to travel over hill and dale, hunting and digging roots; and, during the driest months of the year, the impervious, scrubby deserts are traversed by them, for the purpose of procuring small game, in spite of excessive heat and want of water. To assuage the burnings of thirst, under such circumstances, they resort to the expedient of covering their bodies with earth, which is said to cool them, and answer the same purpose as drinking water. Fifteen to twenty miles is about the distance they travel in a day, the men often taking circuitous roads, while the women and children, many of whom have to be carried, are taken straight to the intended camping place, under the protection and guidance of one or more men. They seem never in a hurry to start in the morning, and it usually requires a great deal of talking and urging, on the part of the more eager, before a movement is made. When arrived at the camp, which is always some time before sunset, the first thing to be done is to make a fire and roast the small animals that the men may have killed (kangaroo, and other large game, being roasted on the spot where it is killed, and, what is not eaten then, carried piecemeal to the camp. ) After the meat is consumed, the women produce the roots or fruit picked up by them during the day; and this dessert also over, the rest of the evening is spent in talking, singing, or dancing. In summer and fine weather, they only put a few branches on the ground, in a semi-circular shape, to serve as a breakwind; but, in rainy weather, they construct huts of sheoak branches, in the shape of a deep niche, giving them as much pitch as possible to promote the running down of the water. A fire is always kept burning in front of the hut to keep their feet warm during the night; and, in cold weather, each individual has a small heap of burning coals in front, and at the back; as the least shifting will bring them in close contact with these coals, it frequently happens that they burn themselves severely. The length of time that they stay in a camp