Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/44

 xxxiv INTRODUCTION. the dark. Seen as they were in the moonlight, daubed with paint shrieking and contorting themselves into postures that defy description it was difficult almost to regard them as human beings." The food of the South Australian tribes, in their wild state, included an immense variety. Animals, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, grubs, seeds, and roots, were alike prized by them; and from the fertility of the Adelaide plains and the surrounding country, the supply, for the numbers of natives which occupied them before the white settlement, must have been practically unlimited. In addition to the above, honey, white ants, and eggs, gave them variety at all seasons of the year. Their cookery was rude. Mesh was cooked in holes filled with hot stones, covered with wet grass. Small animals were thrust whole into hot ashes. When cooked, the entrails were let out through an incision in the abdomen, and the game was eaten hot. Sometimes fishes were encased in clay and then baked in hot ashes. Snakes were broiled upon embers, but the blacks would rarely partake of the flesh of any snake, unless killed by themselves. Their mode of dressing their food would scarcely tempt any one who was not in a state of semi-starvation, though those who have partaken of it speak well of it. Having no houses, and no permanent dwellings, they could lay up no store, so virtually they lived from hand to mouth, each day, except at certain seasons, providing for its own requirements. Special kinds of food were forbidden to women altogether, and to youths who had not been made men. The women, in all cases, came badly off, when they depended upon what the men of the tribes chose to give them; but as, in many cases, they were sole providers, doubtless they took good care of themselves. They were most voracious in their appetites, and gorged themselves to a most disgusting state of repletion. In Eyre’s account of his journey from Adelaide to Western Australia he gives an account of a meal made by a native who accompanied him, which may be looked upon with something more than wonder. After a considerable time of privation, Wylie (the native boy) shot a young kangaroo, large enough for two good meals; "upon this we