Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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The
Root Is Roasted In Hot Ashes, And Chewed, When It Affords A Nutritious
And Pleasant Farinaceous Food.
The belillah is another important bulbous root, which also grows on lands
subject to floods.
It is about the size of a walnut, of a hard and oily
nature, and is prepared by being roasted and pounded into a thin cake
between two stones. Immense tracts of country are covered with this plant
on the flats of the Murray, which in the distance look like the most
beautiful and luxuriant meadows. After the floods have retired I have
seen several hundreds of acres, with the stems of the plant six or seven
feet high, and growing so closely together as to render it very difficult
to penetrate far amongst them.
The thick pulpy leaf of the mesembryanthemum is in general use in all
parts of Australia which I have visited, and is eaten as a sort of relish
with almost every other kind of food. That which grows upon the elevated
table lands is preferred to that which is found in the valleys. It is
selected when the full vigour of the plant begins to decline and the tips
of the leaves become red, but before the leaf is at all withered. The
fruit is used both when first ripe and also after it has become dried up
and apparently withered. In each case it has an agreeable flavour and is
much prized by the natives.
Many other descriptions of fruits and berries are made use of in
different parts of the continent, the chief of which, so far as their use
has come under my own observation, are -
1. A kind of fruit called in the Moorunde dialect "ketango," about the
size and shape of a Siberian crab, but rounder. When this is ripe, it is
of a deep red colour, and consists of a solid mealy substance, about the
eighth of an inch in thickness, enclosing a large round stone, which,
upon being broken, yields a well-flavoured kernel. The edible part of the
fruit has an agreeable acid taste, and makes excellent puddings or
preserves, for which purpose it is now extensively used by Europeans. The
shrub on which this grows, is very elegant and graceful, and varies from
four to twelve feet in height. [Note 71: A species of fusanus.] When in
full bearing, nothing can exceed its beauty, drooping beneath its
crimson load.
Another shrub found in the scrubs, may sometimes be mistaken for this, as
it bears in appearance a similar fruit; but on being tasted, it is bitter
and nauseous. This in the Murray dialect is called "netting." The natives
prepare it by baking it in an oven, which takes the bitter taste away.
The "netting" is earlier in season than the "ketango."
2. A berry about the size and shape of a large sloe, but with a smaller
stone; conical in shape, and rounded at the large end. This fruit is
juicy and saline, though not disagreeable in taste. There are several
varieties of it, which when ripe are of a black, red, or yellow colour.
The black is the best. The bush upon which it grows is a salsolaceous
bramble [Note 72: Nitraria Australis], and is found in large quantities
on the saline flats, bordering some parts of the Murrumbidgee and Murray
rivers; and along the low parts of the southern coast, immediately behind
the ridges bounding the sea shore. It is a staple article of food in its
season, among the natives of those districts where it abounds, and is
eaten by them raw, stone and all.
3. A small berry or currant, called by the natives of Moorunde
"eertapko," about the size of No. 2. shot. When ripe it is red, and of an
agreeable acid flavour. It grows upon a low creeping tap-rooted plant, of
a salsolaceous character, found in the alluvial flats of the Murray,
among the polygonum brushes, and in many other places. A single plant
will spread over an area of many yards in diameter, covering the dry and
arid ground with a close, soft, and velvety carpet in the heat of summer,
at which time the fruit is in perfection. To collect so small a berry
with facility, and in abundance, the natives cut a rounded tray of thin
bark, two or three feet long, and six or eight inches wide, over this
they lift up the plant, upon which the fruit grows, and shake the berries
into it. When a sufficiency has been collected, the berries are skilfully
tossed into the air, and separated from the leaves and dirt. The natives
are very fond of this fruit, which affords them an inexhaustible resource
for many weeks. In an hour a native could collect more than he could use
in a day.
The other sorts of fruits and berries are numerous and varied, but do not
merit particular description.
[Note 73: Mr. Simpson gives the following account of the Bunya Bunya, a
fruit-bearing tree lately discovered on the N.E. coast of New
Holland.
"Ascending a steep hill, some four miles further on, we passed
through a bunya scrub, and for the first time had an opportunity of
examining this noble tree more closely. It raises its majestic head above
every other tree in the forest, and must, therefore, frequently reach the
height of 250 feet; the trunk is beautifully formed, being as straight as
an arrow, and perfectly branchless for above two-thirds of its height;
branches then strike off, nearly at right angles from the trunk, forming
circles which gradually diminish in diameter till they reach the summit,
which terminates in a single shoot; the foliage shining, dark green, the
leaves acutely pointed and lanceolate, with large green cones, the size
of a child's head, hanging from the terminal branches in the fruiting
season (January). It is, too, very remarkable that the bunya tree,
according to the natives, is nowhere to be met with but in these parts;
it is, however, there is no doubt, a species of the araucaria genus, well
known in South America; the timber, when green, is white, fine grained
and very tough, but whether it retains these qualities when dry, has not
yet been determined.
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