If the ground to leeward of the game was without cover, the native would retire to a spot where he could construct a screen of boughs, and, with this before him, he would without difficulty get within reach of his prey.
Sometimes two men set out together for the purpose of spearing the kangaroo. One attracts the attention of the kangaroo by making a very slight noise, as by breaking twigs or the like, while the other approaches stealthily from an opposite direction until near enough to transfix the animal with his spear.
Kangaroos are frequently taken at their watering-places. If there is convenient and suitable natural shelter near a water-hole, the native conceals himself in the bushes, and patiently waits until he can throw his spear with a certain aim. If there is no shelter, he constructs a screen of boughs very artfully, and in such a situation as not to attract the attention of the animals when they come to the water.
Another method of catching kangaroos at their water-places is described in a letter to me by Mr. A. F. Sullivan. The men of the Paroo make a pit, close to the water, and enclose a space with two wings of brush-fence. Each wing is from three hundred to four hundred yards in length, forming two sides of a triangle. When a kangaroo comes for water, the natives hunt him into the space between the wings, and thence into the pit, where he is easily knocked on the head with a waddy.
Nets are also used for catching the kangaroo.
On great occasions, a large number of natives assemble and form a hunting party. This hunt is always under the guidance of experienced persons, who direct the mode of procedure and assign the hunters their places. An area of country perhaps half a mile or more in diameter is encircled by the sportsmen, who, shouting and clattering their arms, gradually close in, and when the animals are in a narrow space they spear them, or knock them on the head with waddies, as they jump from one point of danger to another.[1]
This method is practised both in scrubby forest tracts and also in more open country where there are small plains.
They use fire at times, when they wish to take a number of animals. The men form a circle, and set fire to the bushes, and thus kill a great many kangaroos and other wild animals of the forest.
In the Port Lincoln district, the men and boys are expert in using a club named wirra. When the bush is on fire, and the animals are trying to escape, they throw the wirra with unerring dexterity, and kill both kangaroos, wallabies, and kangaroo-rats.
- ↑ "These great public hunts or battues are conducted under certain rules. The proprietor of the land must have invited the other natives, and must be present himself; for should these regulations be violated, a very bloody fight is certain to take place. The first spear which strikes a kangaroo determines whose property the dead animal is to be; it being no matter how slight the wound may have been; even if a boy threw the spear, the rule holds good; and if the animal killed is one which, by their laws, a boy is not allowed to eat, then his right passes on to his father or eldest male relation."—Grey, vol. II., p. 272.
Fair-play characterises the actions of the natives as well in their amusements as in battles and disputes.
