they took care to keep themselves supplied with food each day.[1] Had a stranger come suddenly upon their camps, when the natives were in a wild state, at any time during the day, he would have found them almost totally deserted. Had he inspected them, he would have found them inhabited by a few old people and children. But towards evening he would have observed blacks coming from all quarters, some laden with game, some with fish, and a few with a stick of firewood on their shoulders. Each had been away seeking food and necessaries for the supply of the camp. In times of peace, when they had no fear of enemies lurking about, they would move from place to place without caution. The men would go in a mob to have a grand battue among the kangaroos, which would be done by a number of men driving the animals into some corner where they could spear them as the creatures tried to pass them. The women would also go away in large numbers in canoes to fish; but they would take care to return to the camp before the arrival of their husbands, in order to have the fires lighted and some of the produce of their day's labor roasted for the hunters. The appetite of their husbands would probably not be so keen as that of the hunters who are proverbially named when hunger is mentioned; for, if successful in their day's sport, they would have made an astonishing meal long before reaching home. It is the custom of the blacks, when they catch a kangaroo, to roast and eat part of it on the spot. And here a remark may be made respecting the much talked of enormous eating of the blacks. This is accounted for by the way in which they live. As hunters, they would, at most, have a very precarious living, for sometimes they would be unsuccessful in their hunting, and their fishing would also fail. At such times they would have to allay hunger by eating some of the various vegetable productions which are common. The blacks are capable of enduring long fasts, and when they get food in abundance, they are very liable to exceed the usual limits; but let an Aboriginal be fed regularly every day, and it soon becomes apparent that he eats just as much as is sufficient for him. In fact his appetite is not at all out of the common."
- ↑ The natives are not so improvident as is generally supposed. They take great care of birds' nests, and they sink wells, and protect the natural water-holes against the encroachments of animals. They cover the springs of water with stones and branches of trees; and show, by burning off the grass and in many other ways, that it is their duty to make provision for their future wants.
Mr. Charles Coxen writes thus:—"Much has been said of the imprudence of these poor creatures, and I do not intend to deny the general truth of such statements, but I believe that had we been better acquainted with their habits before the colonists came among them, we should give them credit for more thoughtfulness than we now do. In corroboration of this opinion, I may inform you that, during an exploration trip into the interior, made by me in 1836, I found a considerable store of grass-seed, gum from the mimosa, and other stores, carefully packed up in large bags made from the skin of the kangaroo, and covered over with pieces of bark, so as to keep them properly dry. The weight of the bags containing the grass-seed and gum was about one hundred pounds; the seeds had been carefully dried after being collected from the small grasses of the plains. It is used as food after being ground into a kind of paste. The gum is also one of their favorite articles of consumption, and when made into a thick mucilage, and mixed with honey or sugar, is really very nice. Such instances of forethought are doubtless rare, and I believe are only to be found beyond the influence of civilization."—The Kommillaroy Tribe. A paper read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, 1866.
