Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/231

 being up with the pots, kettles, and meat, we were obliged to sup off scons baked on the coals, and a pot of tea without sugar. The natives came round, as many were old friends who had also visited us at Lake Buchanan. They brought lots of women with them, and among them the only pretty face we have seen, and she is really very pretty, her features regular, and her figure faultless. They provided us with an ample supply of fish. Some of those who had been with us before baked some "adoo" for us, but we did not touch it, having seen the process of the manufacture, which certainly was anything but tempting. They grind it between two stones, then winnow it, put it into a wooden trough, and mix it thus—they don't pour water on it as we should, but take a mouthful at a time, and squirt over this flour, if it may bear that name, until they have kneaded it into a paste, which they make into thin cakes, and bake in the ashes, in fact an "adoo" damper. One of our men got some from one of the natives, and made it into a small cake; it had a strong astringent taste, and leaves a hot sensation in the throat. They also brought us water for cooking, wood, etc., and were highly delighted we had come. Not loss than 200 or 300 were round us at one time.

Mr. McKinlay has called this "Lake Jeannie,"