Nafiro or Blachfellows' Bread. 1015 



starch formed, as may easily be pi-ovecl by ;i[)|)lying tlie tincture of 

 iodine, wliicli does not give the well-known violet reaction. 



The name of native bread, first given to it, is apt to mislead, for 

 Tulasne, the distinguished mycologist, in describing it, in 1851, 

 remarks that " it is the native bread of the Knglish colonists of 

 Tasmania." It is now more commonly called blackfclloAvs' bread, in 

 order to indicate its use by the Australian aborigines. It has some- 

 times been called in question whether the natives ever really used it 

 as food, and I have endeavoured to get information on the subject 

 from direct sources. The Rev. F. A. Hagenauer, General Inspector 

 of Aborigines, writes to me as follows : — " I know the fungus well, 

 and have often seen the old blackfellows eat the same, when they 

 called it " garni banyip " or native In-ead. It used to be dug out of 

 the ground on the banks of the Wimmera river, near Lake Hind- 

 marsh, and good quantities were found in the Western District, near 

 Lake Condali." The Rev. J. H. Stiihle in charge of the Aboriginal 

 Mission Station, Lake Condah, kindly made inquiries for me from 

 some of the oldest blacks living there, and he replied as follows : — 

 " The natives inform me : 1st. That they have never seen any form 

 of fructiiication from the surface of the native bread, neither did 

 they know where to look for it by any particular signs of toadstool 

 growth, &c. It grew in dry groimd (not wet), and when they found 

 it, it was by observing the ground raised up and cracking in one 

 spot, owing to the native bread forcing itself upwards. 2nd. It was 

 not found attached in any way to underground roots, decaying wood, 

 &c. 3rd. It was geiieralli/ used by the blacks for food, not only in 

 seasons of scarcity, but whenever they found it. They did not cook it 

 in any way, but just cut it with their flint knives, and then ate it as they 

 found it, only rubbing off the earth which adhered to the outside of 

 the bread. 4th. As already stated, the blacks do not know where to 

 find it from surface indications, other than those I have ah'eady 

 referred to." 



The late Mr, A. P. Miller, chemist, Tasmania, in forwarding a 

 very large specimen of native bread to the British Pharmaceutical 

 Conference in 1884, wrote in a very similar strain to the above. " I 

 can say little about the native bread, except that the aborigines of 

 Tasmania were very fond of it, and considered it a delicacy. There 

 is neither leaf, branch, root or stem shown above ground to indicate 

 where it can be dug for successfully ; but after rains the natives used 

 to discover the spots by cracks of a peculiai- nature on the surface, 

 which indicated its locality." 



Tastes proverbially differ, and I can only say that the aborginals 

 must have had few appetising foods in their daily fare when they 

 considered native bread a delicacy, or it may have been on account 

 of its comparative scarcity that it was considered such. 



Chemical Composition. 



No complete chemical analysis has been made of it, as far as I 

 am aware, but Mr. Maiden, Government Botanist of New South 



