20 AUSTRALIAN ABOBIGINES. 



resembles a small parsnip, with a flower like a buttercup, grows chiefly on the 

 open plains. It is much esteemed on account of its sweetness, and is dug up by 

 the women with the muurang pole. The roots are washed and put into a 

 rush basket made on purpose, and placed in the oven in the evening to be ready 

 for next morning's breakfast. When several families live near each other and 

 cook their roots together, sometimes the baskets form a pile three feet high. The 

 cooking of the muurang entails a considerable amount of labour on the women, 

 inasmuch as the baskets ai'e made by them ; anil as these often get burnt, they 

 rarely serve more than twice. The muurang root, when cooked, is called 

 yuwatch. It is often eaten uncooked. The bulbous root, muuyuup, of the 

 common orchis, hinnmhinnitch, and of another named yarrayarupp, are eaten 

 either raw or cooked. The weeakk, resembling a small carrot, is cooked in 

 hot ashes without a basket. The bulb of the clematis, ' taaruuk,' is dug up in 

 winter, cooked in baskets, and kneaded on a small sheet of bark into doutrh, 

 and eaten under the name of murpit. The root of the native convolvulus, also 

 called taaruuk, is cooked in the same way, and forms the principal vegetable 

 food in winter, when the muurang is out of season. A tuber, called puewan, 

 about the size of a walnut, and resembling the earthnut of Europe, is ducf up, and 

 eaten roasted. It has no stalk or leaf to mark its locality, and is discovered 

 from the shallow holes scraped by the bandicoots in search of it, and from a 

 scarcity of herbage in the neighbourhood. A variety of the sedge — the flag of 

 the cooper — has a root of pleasant flavour, resembling celery, which is eaten 

 uncooked as a salad. So also are the salsuginous plant, the mesembryanthemum, 

 or pig's face, and the sow thistle. The latter is eaten to produce sleep. A kind 

 of bread is made of the root of the common fern, roasted in hot ashes, and beaten 

 into paste with a stone. 



Mushrooms, and several kinds of fungi, are eaten raw ; and a large under- 

 ground fungus, about the size of an ordinary turnip, called native bread by 

 white people, is eaten uncooked, and is very good. 



Large numbers of pupse, found in the groimd at the foot of gum trees, 

 are dug up in winter, and baked in hot ashes. They are the transitional forms 

 of large green processional caterpillars, which crawl in lines on the stems 

 of trees in search of a place to rest during their change into the pupa state. 

 Of this transformation, and of their ultimately becoming moths, the aborigines 

 are well aware. In addition to these there are many delicacies, chiefly collected 

 by the women and children, and cooked in hot ashes, such as grubs, small lish. 



