BY J. H. MAIDEN. 369 



sufficient, one politely plasters it behind his ear. It is also 

 smoked, and to prepare the leaves for this purpose they are 

 damped, mixed with potash prepared from the ashes of suitable 

 plants, and rolled up in the shape of a cigar. This is often 

 chewed, and the saliva swallowed. 



In small quantities pituri has a powerful stimulating effect, 

 assuaging hunger, and enabling long journeys to be made without 

 fatigue and with but little food. It is also used by the aboriginals 

 to excite them before fighting. It is used to poison emus. 



Wills' diary from Cooper's Creek (p. 283) has the following 

 under date May 7th, 1861 : — "In the evening various members 

 of the tribe came down with lumps of nardoo and handfuls of 

 fish, until we were positively unable to eat any more. They also 

 gave us some stuff they call hedgery or pedgery ; it has a highly 

 intoxicating effect when chewed even in small quantities. It 

 appears to be the dried stems and leaves of some shrub." 



" The pituri consists of leaves broken into small particles and 

 mixed with acacia leaves, small dried berries containing reniform 

 seeds, and unexpanded flower-buds of the shape of a minute 

 caper." 



In March, 1872, Dr. Bancroft, of Brisbane, read a paper 

 before the Queensland Philosophical Society on Pituri. He 

 obtained specimens from a Mr. Gilmour, who had procured them 

 from the neighbourhood of the Kulloo water -hole, eight miles 

 beyond Eyre's Creek. He stated that the use of the pituri is 

 confined to the men of a tribe called Mallutha, all the males of 

 which are circumcised. The pituri caused a severe headache in 

 Europeans who used it. 



Dr. Banci'oft then summarises the effects of an infusion of 

 pituri, at some length. 



Dr. George Bennett of Sydney has some notes on the drug in 

 the N.S.W. Medical Gazette, iii., 8, May, 1873. This pituri was 

 obtained from the same source as that used by Dr. Bancroft, but 

 was in a damaged condition. 

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