92 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 



Emus are frequently run down with dogs. They are sometimes trapped, 

 dui-ing the dry weather, by digging a hole in a nearly dried-up swamp, where 

 the birds are in the habit of drinking. The hole is about twenty feet in diameter, 

 and made very muddy and soft, with a little water in the centre. When the 

 birds wade in to drink, they get bogged, and are easily captured. If not actually 

 smothered, they are very much exhausted with struggling. This trap, if at a 

 distance from the camp, is visited every two or three days to remove the birds. 

 The feathers are highly prized for making ornaments, the fat for anointing the 

 body and hair, and the flesh for food. Emu is considered the greatest delicacy. 

 It is eaten, however, only by the men and grey -haired women ; young women 

 and childi-en are not allowed to partake of it. No reason is given for this rule. 

 When the time for the emu to lay her eggs has arrived — which is marked, as has 

 been elsewhere observed, by the star Canopus appearing a little above the horizon 

 in the east at daybreak — every member of a tribe must return home, and no eggs 

 must be taken from the grounds of a neighbouring tribe. If any person is caught 

 trespassing and stealing the eggs, he or she can be put to death on the spot. The 

 aborigines say that the emu is very ready to desert her nest, and if she observes 

 yellow leeches crawling over her eggs before she lays the u.sual number, she 

 immediately commences a new one, which accounts for many abandoned nests 

 with only two or three eggs in them, instead of the usual dozen. The first egg 

 of the emu is called ' purtse wuuchuup,' meaning ' youngest,' because it is not only 

 the smallest but the last to hatch, and is always at the bottom of the nest, 

 covered by the others. The eggs are considered a great treat, and are cooked in 

 hot ashes. 



The aborigines have a tradition respecting the existence at one time of some 

 very large birds, which were incapable of flight, and resembled emus. They 

 lived long ago, when the volcanic hills were in a state of eruption. The 

 native name for them is ' meeheeruung parrinmall' — ' big emu,' and they are 

 described, hyperbolically, as so large that their ' heads were as high as the hills,' 

 and so formidable that a kick from one of them would kill a man. These birds 

 were much feared on account of their extraordinary courage, strength, and speed 

 of foot. When one was seen, two of the bravest men of the tribe were ordered 

 to kill it. As they dared not attack it on foot, they provided themselves with a 

 great many spears, and climbed up a tree ; and when the bu'd came to look at 

 them, they speared it from above. The last specimen of this extinct bird was 

 seen near the site of Hamilton. In all probability, skeletons will be some day 



