Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/35

 which they are very dexterous. They have most success at night, when the fish are attracted by the glare of torches, and in some places they take a great deal by means of weirs. In the vicinity of these, fish have been found left in heaps by the natives, after they had used what they needed.

They also live on the tortoise and land-crab, and eat grubs, which they find of a large size in the bark of certain trees. The principal root they use is the eringo, or wild parsnip, which grows to the depth of three or four feet in loam and other strong soils. Certain nuts of a bitter quality they convert into food, by previous rubbing over with clay, and baking in hot ashes. In the proper season, they get honey from the blossoms of the banksia tree, which they extract by suction.

As to their mode of cooking fish, the author has partaken of a specimen of it, that would have been no disgrace to a Parisian cook. It was a flat fish, which, after being washed and prepared, was wrapped in soft bark, and placed in hot ashes until dressed. By this process, an acid from the bark was communicated to the fish, imparting to it so agreeable a flavour, that it required the addition of no other sauce.

Their only clothing by day, and covering at night, is made of kangaroo and opossum skins, with which the women are tolerably well supplied; but the men, especially in summer, often go naked. Their huts, which in shape resemble bee-hives, are about four feet high, and capable of containing but three or four persons. They are constructed in a few minutes with sticks, and covered with the bark of the Melaleuka, or tea tree, as it is called in New Holland. This bark is of a soft cottony substance, and strips off the tree in large flakes. The entrance is on the side which is sheltered from the prevalent wind; where, instead of a door, fire is kindled, towards which the inmates stretch their feet when they lie down.