BY GERARD KREFFT. 361 



At Reedy Lake, about ten men and women were noticed, and 

 at Lake Boga, six ; the natives who visited the camp at Lake 

 Boga were remarkable on account of their powers of mimickry, 

 and the good English they spoke ; all had been under the tuition 

 of the Moravian Missionaries, and one appeared to make a 

 livelihood by offering to preach like one of them ; he had a way 

 of his own of saying home truths, like " white-fellow always 

 pray give it daily bread, but bail give it damper." It appears 

 that the Moravian Missionaries had made an attempt to teach 

 the natives agriculture, but I fear with little success. A few 

 small plots of ground enclosed with a brush fence, and overgrown 

 with weeds, were all that was left of these " native gardens," 

 to which their owners pointed with considerable pride. 



In this part of the country where extensive reed beds are of 

 common occurrence, the natives live for several months during the 

 year on " Typha roots," or Wongal (Typha Shuitleworthii) ; at a 

 certain period, I believe January or February to be the months, 

 the women enter these swamps, take up the roots of these reeds, 

 and carry them in large bundles to their camp ; the roots thus 

 collected are about a foot to eighteen inches in length, and they 

 contain besides a small quantity of saccharine matter, a con- 

 siderable quantity of fibre. The roots are roasted in a hollow 

 made into the ground, and either consumed hot or taken as a sort 

 of provision upon hunting excursions ; they are at the best but a 

 miserable apology for flour, and I almost believe that it was more 

 on account of the tough fibre thus obtained that these roots are 

 made an article of food. 



As soon as a sufficient quantity of " Wongal " had been 

 roasted, the whole tribes settled around the improvised oven, 

 every body chewing the roots most vigorously ; the lumps of 

 rejected fibre were afterwards collected by the women, and spun 

 into threads from which their fishing-nets and other domestic 

 utensils were manufactured, these nets forming the staple article 

 of barter between the tribes inhabiting the reed-beds and those 

 parts where no Wongal was produced. If we take into 

 consideration the large nets for catching water-fowl in use, it is 

 indeed astonishing how great the perseverance of these people 

 (and how sound their teeth) must have been, and it is not to be 



