528 AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS HUMAN FOOD-PROVIDING PLANTS, 



" The slab, generally of sandstone, is about twenty-two inches* 

 in length, fourteen inches in breadth, and about one inch in thick- 

 ness. The handstones (Wallong) are round, or of an oval form, 

 and vary in size. One is four inches and a-half in breadth, and 

 one inch and three-quarters in thickness ; and another is six inches 

 in length, four inches and a-half in breadth, and three inches in 

 thickness. The Wallong have hollows cut in them, so as to be more 

 easily held by the hand. 



" Mr. Howitt says that the stones here figured are like those 

 usually seen at Cooper's Creek. In the flat stone there is a 

 depression which leads out to the edge by a channel. In finding 

 grass- or portulaca-seed, a little water is sprinkled in by the left 

 hand, and the seeds being ground with the stone in the right hand 

 form a kind of porridge, which runs out by the channel into a 

 wooden bowl (Peechee), or a piece of bark. It may then be baked 

 in the ashes, or eaten as it is, by using the crooked forefinger as a 

 spoon. The term used for grinding seeds is Bowardakoneh. 



" Nai'doo seeds are pounded by the above, placing a few in at a 

 time with the left hand. The " tap-tap " of the process may be 

 heard in the cam)) far into the night at times." 



All the colonies except Tasmania. 



135. Melodorum Leichhardtii, Benth., (Syn. Unona Leich- 

 hardtii, F.v.M.), N.O. Anonaceai, B.Fl., i. 52. 



" Merangara " of the aboriginals. 



This tree has an oblong or almost round fruit, with one or two 

 seeds. It is eaten by the aborigines without any preparation 

 (Thozet). 



Northern New South Wales and Queensland. 



*Iu the Technological Museum is a very fine pair of stones from the 

 Korningbirry Creek, 100 miles N. W. of Wilcannia, and SO miles S. of Mil- 

 parinka, N.S.W. The material is of fine-grained sandstone, inclining to 

 quartzite. The dimensions of the bed-stone are 23x14 (widest part)x2 

 to 2 inches, while those of the hand-stone are 5\x4x\^ inches. The 

 handstone has no hollow cut in it, but it is well-worn, and it is of course 

 •impossible to say what its original thickness was. 



