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, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 02Eyre, Edward John
History
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, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 02
Eyre, Edward John
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Ethnology -- Australia
the open space towards the net, not dreaming of the evil that awaits
them; as they approach nearer, the two natives at the trees utter a
shrill whistle, resembling the note of the hawk, upon which the flock,
which usually consists of ducks, lower their flight at once, and
proceeding onwards, strike full against the net, which is instantly
lowered by the men attending to it, and the birds are left struggling in
the water, or on the ground, entangled in its meshes, whilst the natives
are busy paddling in their canoes, or scampering towards the net on the
ground, to wring their necks off, and get the instrument of destruction
raised again, to be ready for the next flight that may come. Should the
birds fly too high, or be inclined to take any other direction, little
pieces of bark are thrown above them, or across their path, by the
natives stationed for that purpose. These circling through the air, make
a whirring noise like the swoop of the eagle when darting on his prey,
and the birds fancying their enemy upon them, recede from the pieces of
bark, and lowering their flight, become entangled in the net. Early in
the morning, late in the evening, and occasionally in the night, this
work is conducted, with the greatest success, though many are caught
sometimes in the day.
As many as fifty birds are taken in a single haul. I have myself, with
the aid of a native, caught thirty-three, and many more would have been
got, but that the net was old, and the birds broke through it before they
could be all killed. On other occasions, I have been out with the
natives, where a party of five or six have procured from twenty to thirty
ducks, on an average, daily, for many days successively. In these
occupations the natives make use of a peculiar shrill whistle to frighten
down the birds; it is produced by pulling out the under lip with the
fore-finger and thumb, and pressing it together, whilst the tongue is
placed against the groove, or hollow thus formed, and the breath strongly
forced through. Whistling is also practised in a variety of other ways,
and has peculiar sounds well known to the natives, which indicate the
object of the call. It is used to call attention, to point out that game
is near, to make each other aware of their respective positions in a
wooded country, or to put another on his guard that an enemy is near,
etc., etc.
Such is an outline of some of the kinds of food used by the natives, and
the modes of procuring it as practised in various parts of Australia
where I have been. There is an endless variety of other articles, and an
infinite number of minute differences in the ways of procuring them,
which it is unnecessary to enter upon in a work which professes to give
only a general account of the Aborigines, their manners, habits, and
customs, and not a full or complete history, which could only be compiled
after the observation of many years devoted exclusively to so
comprehensive a subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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