728 



A thick mulga stick is also carried, called "wanna." This is 

 from 2 ft. to 3 ft. long, sharpened at one end and hardened by 

 fire, and is used for many purposes, but principally for digging 

 out food. They use a small wooden food-and-water bowl, 

 about 1 ft. long by 3 in. or 4 in. broad, called 'wera" ; more 

 often it is used as a scoop to remove earth and sand, after it 

 has been loosened by the "wanna," when in search of rabbits, 

 lizards, etc. A spear-thrower, which they call "mira," is very 

 different to any other I have ever seen. It is deeply concave 

 on the upper side; in this hollow the spear rests. The peg 

 or tooth which takes the weight of the spear when thrown is 

 bound on by sinews and resin. At the handle-end a piece of 

 flint, of a chisel shape, is cemented in very firmly by means 

 of porcupine grass resin. All these articles were carried by 

 the men. Boomerangs are not made or used by them. A 

 large food-and-water bowl cut out of wood, called "'mika," is 

 used by the women, and is generally large enough to hold a 

 big child ; the children are often placed in these large wooden 

 dishes or bowls and then stuck up in the fork of a tree, with a 

 bunch of leaves over the top to keep the sun off the child 

 while the mother hunts for food. 



Food. — The supply, even in the Everard Range (which 

 is a rich country compared with some), must vary considerably. 

 Kangaroos are plentiful in some districts. These animals shift 

 about according to rainfall. Amongst some of the great piles 

 of granite rocks, as at Moorilyanna native well, rock wallabies 

 are numerous, and the favourite time for the natives to hunt 

 them is just after sundown, when the marsupials come out on 

 the rocks, which have been heated by the afternoon sun. Emu 

 eggs in season yield an excellent food. Numerous species of 

 lizards are prized by the natives as an item of food. Nearly 

 all their food is cooked in their usual excellent manner — 

 namely, in the sand, which retains the full flavour of the 

 game. Of vegetable foods I saw little, owing to the prolonged 

 drought ; but in good seasons there must be great quantities 

 of edible seeds, for large grinding-stones are found very 

 frequently all over the country near the ranges, and by their 

 concave surfaces they must have been used for grinding pur- 

 poses for many years. The fruit of the native fig (Ficus 

 plaf y poda ) , and called by the natives "Elie," was eaten by 

 them. The wild dog, or dingo, is much relished by the natives 

 as an article of diet, and rarely an old camping-ground came 

 under notice without there being many dingo skulls and bones 

 scattered around ; yet the natives domesticate and fondle over 

 their dog pets. Sugar ants (Melophorus inflafus)^ called by 

 these natives "woma," are much relished. They dig large pits 

 up to 4 ft. or 5 ft. deep in search of the ants ; grasping them by 



