Photo by D. Le Souef] [Melbourne.
PARRY'S WALLABY.
In attitude of listening.
Photo by D. Le Souef] [Melbourne.
PARRY'S WALLABY.
Characteristic feeding attitude.
The conditions under which the kangaroo is obtained for the main purpose of supplying the human commissariat is perhaps most aptly illustrated in connection with its chase as prosecuted by the Australian aborigines. In Tasmania and the Southern Australian States the primeval man is either extinct or more rare than the kangaroo. In the extreme north and far north-west, however, he still poses as "the lord of creation," and conducts his hunting expeditions on a lordly scale. The food-supply of the Australian native is essentially precarious. Long intervals of "short commons" are interspersed with brief periods of over-abundance, in which he indulges his appetite to its fullest bent. A kangaroo drive on native lines represents to the Australian mind one of these last-named superlatively memorable occasions. The entire tribe, men, women, and all capable youths, participate in the sport. Fires are lit by one section of the tribe, according to the direction of the wind, encircling a vast area of the country, while the other section posts itself in detachments in advantageous positions to intercept the terrified marsupials as they fly in the presumed direction of safety to escape the devouring element. Spears and waddies and boomerangs, in the hands of the expert natives, speedily accomplish a scene of carnage, and the after feast that follows may perhaps be best left to the imagination of the reader. The encroachments of neighbouring natives on the happy hunting-grounds that time and custom have conceded to be the sole monopoly of any one particular tribe is most strenuously resented, and constitute one of the commonest sources of their well-nigh perpetual inter-tribal battles.
Photo by D. Le Souef, Melbourne.