, but as there
was no salt forthcoming, and the flesh was very tasteless, I cannot say I
enjoyed this particular native dainty. The snakes were invariably baked
whole in their skins, and the meat was very tender and juicy, though a
little insipid as to flavour. The native method of cooking is to scoop
out a hole in the sand with the hands, and then place the article to be
cooked at the bottom. Some loose stones would then be thrown over the
"joint." Next would come a layer of sand, and the fire was built on the
top of all. Rats were always plentiful--often so much so as to become a
serious nuisance. They were of the large brown variety, and were not at
all bad eating. I may say here that the women-folk were responsible for
the catching of the rats, the method usually adopted being to poke in
their holes with sticks, and then kill them as they rushed out. The
women, by the way, were responsible for a good many things. They were
their masters' dressers, so to speak, in that they were required to carry
supplies of the greasy clay or earth with which the blacks anoint their
bodies to ward off the sun's rays and insect bites; and beside this, woe
betide the wives if _corroboree_ time found them without an ample supply
of coloured pigments for the decoration of their masters' bodies. One of
the principal duties of the women-folk, however, was the provision of
roots for the family's dinner. The most important among these
necessaries--besides fine yams--were the root and bud of a kind of water-
lily, which when roasted tasted not unlike a sweet potato.

There was usually a good water supply in the neighbourhood of these
camps, and if it failed (as it very frequently did), the whole tribe
simply moved its quarters elsewhere--perhaps a hundred miles off.

The instinct of these people for finding water, however, was nothing
short of miraculous. No one would think of going down to the seashore to
look for fresh water, yet they often showed me the purest and most
refreshing of liquids oozing up out of the sand on the beach after the
tide had receded.

All this time, and for many months afterwards, my boat and everything it
contained were saved from molestation and theft by a curious device on
the part of Yamba. She simply placed a couple of crossed sticks on the
sand near the bows, this being evidently a kind of Masonic sign to all
beholders that they were to respect the property of the stranger among
them; and I veri