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
Full grown young females are not allowed to eat the male opossum, the
wallabie (linkara), the red kangaroo, the fish kelapko, the black duck,
the widgeon, the whistling duck, the coote, the native companion, two
turtles (rinka and tung-kanka), the emu, the emu's egg, the snake
(yarl-dakko), cray-fish which may have deformed claws, the female or the
young from the pouch of any kangaroo, the musk duck, the white crane, the
bandicoot, the wild dog, two kinds of fish (toor-rue and toitchock), the
shag (yarrilla), the water mole (neewitke), the ground grub (ronk), the
vegetable food eaten by the emu (war-itch), etc. When menstruating, they
are not allowed to eat fish of any kind, or to go near the water at all;
it being one of their superstitions, that if a female, in that state,
goes near the water, no success can be expected by the men in fishing.
Fish that are taken by the men diving under the cliffs, and which are
always females about to deposit their spawn, are also forbidden to the
native women.
Old men and women are allowed to eat anything, and there are very few
things that they do not eat. Among the few exceptions are a species of
toad, and the young of the wombat, when very small, and before the hair
is well developed.
Chapter IV.
PROPERTY IN LAND--DWELLINGS--WEAPONS--IMPLEMENTS--GOVERNMENT--CUSTOMS--
SOCIAL RELATIONS--MARRIAGE--NOMENCLATURE.
It has generally been imagined, but with great injustice, as well as
incorrectness, that the natives have no idea of property in land, or
proprietary rights connected with it. Nothing can be further from the
truth than this assumption, although men of high character and standing,
and who are otherwise benevolently disposed towards the natives, have
distinctly denied this right, and maintained that the natives were not
entitled to have any choice of land reserved for them out of their own
possessions, and in their respective districts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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