FOOD. 217 is almost entirely destitute of indigenous fruits of any value to an European, yet there are various kinds which form very valuable and extensive articles of food for the Aborigines; the most abundant and important of these is the fruit of a species of cactus, very elegantly styled pig’s-faces by the white people, but by the natives called karkalla. The size of the fruit is rather less than that of a walnut, and it has a thick skin of a pale reddish clour, by compressing which, the glutinous sweet substance inside slips into the mouth. When it is in season, which is from January to the end of summer, a comparatively glorious life begins for the Aborigines; hunger can never assail them, as this fruit is abundant all over the grassy part of the country, and they never tire of it; the men gather only as much as they want to eat at the time, but the women bring great quantities of it home to the camp, to be eaten at night. The other kinds of fruit that the natives eat grow on small trees or shrubs, in the shape of berries or pods. Some of these are allowed to ripenas the native peach, cherry, wadnirri berry (found on the sea-beach), the karrambi berry (growing on the besom-tree), &c., while others are gathered before they are ripe, and roasted in hot ashes, as, for instance, the myarri and pulbulla, cherries, and the menka and nondo, beans. The last-mentioned fruit, which is much prized by the natives, grows in abundance among the sandhills between Coffin and Sleaford Bays, where it every year attracts a large concourse of tribes, and generally gives occasion for a fight. As a proof how much this bean is valued it may be mentioned that the Kukata tribe, notorious for ferocity and witchcraft, often threaten to burn or otherwise destroy the nondo bushes in order to aggravate their adversaries. As the wattle does not grow in Port Lincoln, at least not to any extent, there is but little eatable gum, which constitutes such an important article of food for the Adelaide tribes. The willow, and another shrub named perrenye, exude, indeed, some gum of the colour and transparency of sugar-candy, but they grow only in certain localities, and the quantity is comparatively limited.
