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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This, When Roasted, Has
Something Of The Appearance And Flavour Of An Almond Badly Peeled.
It is
called in the dialect of the district, where I met with it, Booguon.
The
natives are never so well conditioned in that part of the country, as at
the season of the year when they return from feasting upon this moth; and
their dogs partake equally of the general improvement.
The tops, leaves, and stalks of a kind of cress, gathered at the proper
season of the year, tied up in bunches, and afterwards steamed in an
oven, furnish a favourite, and inexhaustible supply of food for an
unlimited number of natives. When prepared, this food has a savoury and
an agreeable smell, and in taste is not unlike a boiled cabbage. In some
of its varieties it is in season for a great length of time, and is
procured in the flats of rivers, on the borders of lagoons, at the
Murray, and in many other parts of New Holland.
There are many other articles of food among the natives, equally abundant
and valuable as those I have enumerated: such as various kinds of
berries, or fruits, the bulbous roots of a reed called the belillah,
certain kinds of fungi dug out of the ground, fresh-water muscles, and
roots of several kinds, etc. Indeed, were I to go through the list of
articles seriatim, and enter upon the varieties and subdivisions of each
class, with the seasons of the year at which they were procurable, it
would at once be apparent that the natives of Australia, in their natural
state, are not subject to much inconvenience for want of the necessaries
of life.
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