2 TILLEKS OF THE GKOUND CHAP. 



For, when first discovered, in all that great conti- 

 nent not one cultivated plant was known. No fields 

 of wheat or oats waved in the wind, no orchard 

 of fruit-trees existed ; there were no domesticated 

 animals (except the dog), and no fields of turnips 

 or mangolds, no pastures, no one of the everyday 

 things of our life. What did the natives eat, and 

 how did they get enough to live upon ? Many 

 people have asked these questions, and partly 

 by studying what was written by the first white 

 men to come in contact with the natives, partly 

 by watching them in those parts where they still 

 live almost the same life as in old days, partly by 

 asking questions, especially of the old women of 

 the tribe ; in all these ways they have found out a 

 great deal about the natives. 



We know that the men were clever hunters, 

 and that the natives would eat almost any kind of 

 animal food, and we know that it was the duty of 

 the women to find vegetable food. How did they 

 do it ? Australia has hardly given one useful food 

 plant to the world, so that the women's work was 

 certainly not easy. They had pointed sticks called 

 digging-sticks, and with these they dug up roots, 

 especially wild yams ; they gathered seeds, especially 

 acacia seeds, which were used like peas and beans ; 

 they plucked leaves, which could be used as some 

 people in Europe still use nettle and dandelion 



