But a whale-feast is an event of no ordinary kind in the life of an inhabitant of the Bush, and, if we would know how the common sustenance of life is procured by him, we must follow him through a variety of scenes and pursuits, of which, by no means the least important or interesting, is the chase of the kangaroo.[47] This singular and harmless creature is now so well known to Europeans, from specimens that have been brought over and placed in our public collections of animals, and also from numberless pictures, that it would be waste of time to stop to describe it. In truth, being one of the productions peculiar to Australia, it may be said, from the figures of it to be seen upon the back of every book relating to that country, to have become almost the kobong or crest of that southern region. In many portions of New Holland, particularly where the country is wooded and the soil tolerably fertile, kangaroos are very abundant; but so great havoc is made among these defenceless creatures by their various enemies, especially by man, that their numbers appear to be upon the decrease.[48]
A day’s hunting is often the cause of no small excitement, even in England, among men who care nothing for the object of their chase, and are certain of a good dinner at the end of their day’s sport; but we may suppose this to be a matter of more serious interest to the Australian, who depends upon his skill and patience in hunting for his daily food. His whole manner and appearance, accordingly, are changed on these occasions; his eyes brighten up, his motion becomes quick though silent, and every token of his eagerness and anxiety is discoverable in his behaviour. Earth, water, trees, sky, are all in turn the subjects of his keenest search, and his whole soul appears to be engaged in his two senses of sight and hearing. His wives, and even his children, become perfectly silent, until, perhaps, a suppressed whistle is given by one of the women, denoting that she sees a kangaroo near her husband, after which all is again quiet, and an unpractised stranger might ride within a few yards of the group, and not perceive a living thing. The devoted animal, meanwhile, after listening two or three times without being able to perceive any further cause of alarm, returns to its food or other occupation in complete security, while the watchful savage poises his spear, and lifts up his arm ready for throwing it, and then advances slowly and with stealth towards his prey, no part moving but his legs. Whenever the kangaroo looks round, its enemy stands still in the same position he is in when it first raises its head, until the animal, again assured of safety, gives a skip or two, and goes on feeding: again the native advances, and the same scene occurs, until the whizzing spear penetrates the unfortunate creature, upon which the whole wood rings with sudden shouts; women and children all join in the chase, and, at last, the kangaroo, weakened from loss of blood and encumbered by the spear, places its back against a tree, and appears to attack its pursuer with the fury of despair. Though naturally a timid animal, it will, when it is hard pressed for life, make a bold stand; and, if hunted by Europeans, will sometimes wait for the dogs and tear them with its hind claws, or squeeze them with its fore arms, until the blood gushes out of the hound’s nostrils; and sometimes the poor creature will take to the water, and drown every dog that comes near it.[49] But by the natives the poor beast is generally soon dispatched with spears thrown from a distance, and its body is carried off by its conqueror and his wives to some convenient resting-place where they may enjoy their meal.
There is likewise another mode of hunting the same animal, in which many persons join together, and which, though more lively and noisy, is not so characteristical as the first. A herd of kangaroos are surprised either in a thick bushy place, to which they have retired during the heat of the day, or else in an open plain. In the first case, they are encircled by a party, each native giving a low whistle, as he takes up his place, and when the blockade is finished, the bushes are set on fire, and the frightened animals fly from the flames towards the open plains; but no sooner do they approach the outskirts of the wood, than the bushes are fired in the direction in which they are running, while they are driven back by loud calls and tremendous cries, which increase their terror, and they run wildly about, until, at length, maddened by fear, they make a rush through their enemies, who allow but few of them to escape. When the kangaroos are surrounded upon a plain, the point generally chosen is an open bottom encircled by wood; each native has his place given him by some of the elder ones, and all possible means that art, or experience, or the nature of the ground, can furnish, are employed to ensure success in approaching as nearly as may be towards the animals without disturbing them. Thus the circle narrows round the unwary herd, till at last one of them becomes alarmed, and bounds away; but its flight is speedily stopped by a savage with fearful yells; and before the first moments of terror and surprise have passed by, the armed natives come running upon them from every side, brandishing their spears, and raising loud cries; nor does the slaughter, thus commenced, commonly finish before the greater number of them have fallen. These public hunts are conducted under certain rules; for example, the supposed owner of the land must be present, and must have invited the party, or a deadly fight between human beings is pretty sure to take place. The first spear that strikes a kangaroo settles whose property the dead animal is to be; however slight the wound, and even though inflicted by a boy only, this rule holds good; and if the creature killed is one which the boy may not yet lawfully eat,[50] then his right passes on to his father, or nearest male relative. The cries of the hunters are said to be very beautiful and expressive, and they vary at different periods of the chase, being readily understood and answered by all, so that they can thus explain their meaning to one another at a very great distance.
But, since the kangaroo is one of the principal articles of food in the wilds of New Holland, there are yet other modes of taking it, which are commonly practised.
Sometimes they use the ordinary methods of catching it in nets or pitfalls. Occasionally, also, in a dry district, where many animals assemble together from a great distance to drink at some solitary piece of water, the huntsman builds for himself a rude place of shelter, in which for hours he remains concealed and motionless, until the thirsty animals approach in sufficient numbers. Then kangaroos, cockatoos, pigeons, &c. are attacked and destroyed without mercy, and the patience of the hunter is commonly richly rewarded by the booty he obtains.
But the mode of tracking a kangaroo until it is wearied out, is the one which, beyond all others, commands the admiration of the Australians, for it calls forth the exercise of every quality most highly prized among savages, skill in following traces, endurance of hunger and thirst, unwearied bodily exertion, and lasting perseverance. To perform this task the hunter starts upon the track of the kangaroo, which he follows until he catches sight of the animal, as it flies timidly before him; again he pursues the track, and again the object of his pursuit bounds away from him; and this is repeated until nightfall, when the pursuer lights his fire and sleeps upon the track. With the first light of day the hunt is renewed, and, towards the close of the second day, or in the course of the third, the kangaroo, wearied and exhausted by the chase, will allow the hunter to approach near enough to spear it. None but a skilful hunter, in the pride of youth and strength can perform this feat, and one who has frequently practised it always enjoys great fame amongst his companions.
When the kangaroo has been obtained in some one or other of these various methods, the first operation is to take off the skin of the tail, the sinews of which are carefully preserved to sew cloaks or bags, or to make spears. The next thing to be thought of is the cooking of the flesh; and two modes of doing this are common. One of these is to make an oven by digging a hole in the sand, and lighting a fire in it; when the sand is well heated, and a large heap of ashes is collected, the hole is scraped out, and the kangaroo is placed in it, skin and all; it is then covered over with ashes, and a slow fire is kept up above it; when baked enough, it is taken out and laid upon its back, the intestines are then removed, and the whole of the gravy is left in the body of the animal, which is carefully taken out of the skin, and then cut up and eaten. Travellers in the Bush speak very highly of the delicious flavour of the meat thus curiously cooked. The other mode of dressing is merely to broil different portions of the kangaroo upon the fire, and it may be noticed that certain parts, as the blood, the entrails, and the marrow, are reckoned great dainties. Of these the young men are forbidden to partake. Of the blood a sort of long sausage is made, and this is afterwards eaten by the person of most consequence in the company.
Another abundant source of food is supplied to the native population of New Holland at certain seasons, in particular situations, by the various sorts of fish which abound on its coasts, and in its bays and inlets. From this, most probably, arises the fact observed by Captain Flinders, that the borders of bays, and entrances of rivers, are in New Holland always most thickly peopled. And Collins mentions a sort of fancied superiority, which these people pretend to, above those that dwell in the more inland parts. “The natives of the coast,” he says, “when speaking of those in the interior, constantly expressed themselves with contempt and marks of disapprobation.” So very similar are the airs and vanity of a savage, to those in which civilised man indulges. The three most common modes of catching fish are, by spearing them, taking them by means of a weir constructed across places which are left nearly dry at low water, or after a flood, and enclosing them in a net, prepared by the women out of grassy fibres, and one of their greatest efforts of ingenuity.[51] Nothing very remarkable is to be noticed in these modes of fishing, except it be the speed with which they run along the shore, and the certainty with which they aim their spears at the inhabitants of the shallow bays and open lakes. As surely as the natives disappear under the surface of the water, so surely will they reappear with a fish writhing upon the point of their short spears; and even under water their aim is always correct. One traveller, Sturt, is of opinion that they seldom eat the finny tribes when they can get anything else, but this idea seems scarcely to agree with the report of others. At all events, whether from choice or not, a large proportion of their subsistence is derived from the waters. With regard to the cookery of their fish, the Australian barbarians are said to have a most admirable method of dressing them, not unworthy of being copied by other nations. If the fish are not simply broiled upon the fire, they are laid in a piece of paper bark, which is wrapt round them, as paper is folded round a cutlet; strings of grass are then wound tightly about the bark and fish, which is slowly baked in heated sand, covered with hot ashes; when it is sufficiently cooked, the bark is opened, and answers the purpose of a dish; it is, of course, full of juice and gravy, not a drop of which has escaped. The flavour of many sorts of fish thus dressed is said to be delicious, and sometimes pieces of kangaroo and other meats are cooked in the same manner.
The seal is exceedingly abundant on many parts of the Australian coast, and is also useful to the natives for purposes of food, while the pursuit of this creature is an exciting sport for the inhabitants of the southern and western shores of New Holland. The animal must be surprised upon the beach, or in the surf, or among the rocks that lie at no great distance from the shore; and the natives delight in the pursuit, clambering about the wild crags that encircle their own land; sometimes leaping from one rock to another, spearing the fish that lie in the quiet pools between, in the next moment dashing into the surf to fight with a seal or turn a turtle; these are to them agreeable and joyous occupations. And when we remember that their steps are followed by a wife and children, as dear to them, probably, as ours are to us, who are witnesses of their skill and activity; and who, when the game is killed, will help to light the fire with which it is to be cooked, and to drag it to the resting-place, where the father romps with his little ones until the meal is made ready; when we recollect, likewise, that all this takes place in a climate so mild and genial, that a house is not necessary, we shall feel less surprise at the difficulty of persuading an inhabitant of the Bush to fall into European customs, and submit to the trammels of civilised life.
The turtle, must by no means be forgotten, in an account of the different articles of provision upon which an Australian has to depend for his supply. These useful creatures are to be found chiefly on the coast in the warmer portions of New Holland, and are in high season about December and January, the height of summer in Australia. The green turtles are surprised upon the beach when they come to lay their eggs; but the fresh-water turtle is found (as its name implies,) in fresh lakes and ponds, at the season when these are most dried up, and their margin is overgrown with reeds and rushes. Among these the natives wade with stealthy pace, so quietly indeed, that they even creep upon wild fowl and spear them. The turtles swim lazily along the surface of the water, biting and smelling the various aquatic plants they meet with, but as soon as they are alarmed, they sink to the bottom instantly. The pursuer puts out his foot, (the toes of which he uses to seize anything, almost as we use our fingers,) and gropes about with it among the weeds at the bottom of the water until he feels the turtle; and then, holding it to the ground, he plunges his hands and arms in and seizes his prey. In this manner two or three men have been known to take fourteen turtles in a very short time; but these are small, weighing from one to two or three pounds each. The fresh-water turtle is cooked, after the Australian fashion, by being baked, shell and all, in hot ashes; and when it is sufficiently dressed, the bottom shell is removed with ease, and the whole animal remains in the upper shell, which serves for a dish. They are generally very fat and delicious, so that the New Hollanders are extremely fond of them, and the turtle season, being an important part of the year, is looked forward to with pleasure. The green turtles, which are a much larger animal, found only by the sea-side, are taken when crawling on the beach. If they by accident get upon their backs, they are unable to right themselves, and perish miserably, so that nothing more is necessary to secure them, than to place them in that posture, and they may be taken away and devoured at leisure. Among Wellesley Islands, at the bottom of the Gulph of Carpentaria, in the north of New Holland, Captain Flinders obtained in one day, in this manner, no less than forty-six turtles, the least of them weighing 250lbs, and the average being about 300lbs; besides which, many that were not wanted, because there was no room to stow them away, were turned again, and suffered to make their escape.