WALLABY HUNT.
During the whole chase the women took the greatest delight in watching the sport of the men. At the same time they were busily occupied in pulling up the roots of acacias, inside which a larva (Eurynassa australis) is concealed, which is eagerly sought after, and is regarded by the natives as a most delicate morsel. The larva when found was immediately roasted in the red-hot ashes lying everywhere on the ground, and was at once devoured.
On grassy plains the hunt of the wallaby, which is the sport most dear to the men, is always carried on in the manner above described, that is, by burning the grass or simply by wandering about hunting for the sleeping animals. The wallabies have excellent ears, and start at the least noise. They may sit for a few moments moving their large ears to catch any suspicious sound; but, as a rule, even the catlike steps of the blacks are too noisy to enable them to approach sufficiently near the wallaby. When it rains they do not hear so well, and it is then easier to kill them.
These wallabies, the large kangaroos, and the white man’s cattle are the only animals which the blacks near Herbert Vale kill with their spears, though the latter are their most important weapons. The spear, usually eight to ten feet long, consists of two parts—the front, which is sharp-pointed, made of a heavy hard kind of wood, and the butt end, which is usually the longer of the two, of Xanthorrhœa or a similar light material. These two parts are joined and bound together with wood fibres, or with sinews of the kangaroo’s tail, and beeswax heated over the fire. The point is never envenomed, as they know little or nothing about poison. Nor is there any flint point attached, as is often the case in Australia. In Northern Queensland I have occasionally seen the point of the spear furnished with a barb of fish bones for a length of one or two feet up the spear. Such javelins were thicker and shorter than the common ones and were used only for fishing.
The spear is thrown with the help of a throwing-stick, which is equal to a quarter or a fifth part of the whole length of the weapon, and has a hook at one end made of wood, likewise fastened with beeswax and fibres of wood or the sinews of the kangaroo’s tail. This hook is attached to the butt end of the spear, which has a socket fitting the hook. Thus the stick lies along the under side of the spear. When the latter is to be thrown, the stick and the weapon itself are seized with the first three fingers. Both are carried back as far as possible, and the spear is thrown with the force of a sling.
WALLABY NET FROM HERBERT RIVER (⅛ size).
In the wallaby chase the blacks on Herbert river also use nets with large meshes, placing them in a line between posts to which they are fastened. Such a net is fifteen to twenty feet long, and the meshes are about four inches each way.
The chase took place in the so-called open country on Herbert river, which, to the superficial observer, does not differ in any striking manner from that of Southern Queensland. The high gum-trees are found here, but the country is more fertile, and the grass is so high that it is difficult to get through it. On this moist soil grow whole forests of the screw-palm (Pandanus, p. [95]). The country altogether does not look so dry as farther south; small swamps exist here and there, and brooks often cross one’s path.
I found fewer birds in this open country than I used to see elsewhere in Australia. Nor did I ever meet in the bottoms of Herbert river valley with those birds which seem to belong inseparably to an Australian forest landscape, such as the piping crow (Gymnorhina tibicen), the butcher-bird (Cracticus nigrogularis), or the Australian wagtail (Grallina picata). Parrots were also scarce, but in the scrubs up the mountains I saw plenty of them. The bird Centropus, which is common in all Queensland, is found here in great numbers. Although it really is a cuckoo, the colonists call it the “swamp-pheasant,” because it has a tail like a pheasant. It is a very remarkable bird, with stiff feathers, and flies with difficulty on account of its small wings. The “swamp-pheasant” has not the family weakness of the cuckoo, for it does not lay its eggs in the nests of other birds. It has a peculiar clucking voice, which reminds one of the sound produced when water is poured from a bottle—a sound familiar to all who have camped beneath the gum-trees of Australia.