POISONOUS IN A RAW STATE.
Pounding, Desiccation.
42. Caladium machrorhizon, Vent. Hakkin, Rockhampton tribe; Banganga or Nargan, Cleveland Bay tribe.
Found in moist, shady places. A strong herbaceous plant, with very large sagittate leaves. The young bulbs, of a light-rose color inside, found growing on large old rhizomes, are scraped, and divided in two parts, and put under the ashes for about half an hour. When sufficiently baked, they are then pounded by hard strokes between two stones—a large one, Wallarie, and a small one, Kondola. All the pieces which do not look farinaceous, but watery when broken, are thrown away; the others, by strokes of the Kondola, are united by twos or threes, and put into the fire again; they are then taken out and pounded together in the form of a cake, which is again returned to the fire and carefully turned occasionally. This operation is repeated eight or ten times, and when the Hakkin, which is now of a green-greyish color, begins to harden, it is fit for use.
43. Typhonium Brownii, Scott. Merrin.
A small herbaceous plant; found in sandy, shady places. Leaves sagittate entire or three lobate. Flowers purple, dark, of a disagreeable odour. The tubers, which are yellow inside, are manipulated in the same way as the Hakkin, but none are watery, and they are made to adhere together after the first roasting.
Pounding, Maceration, Desiccation.
44. Entada scandens, Benth. Barbaddah, Cleveland Bay tribe.
A strong climber. Pod two to four feet in length, and three to four inches in breadth. The seeds, one and a half to two inches diameter, are put in the stove oven and heated in the same way and for the same time as the Egaie; they are then pounded fine and put into a dilly-bag, and left for ten or twelve hours in water, when they are fit for use.—Murrell's testimony.
45. Cycas media, R. Br. Nut palm. Baveu.
A graceful tree, with a crown of fruit the size of a walnut, yellow when ripe; very common on the mountain sides and in valleys. The nuts are deprived of their outer succulent cover (sarcocarp), and are then broken; and the kernels, having been roughly pounded, are dried three or four hours by the sun, then brought in a dilly-bag to the water stream or pond, where they remain in running water four or five days, and in stagnant water three or four days. By a touch of the fingers the proper degree of softness produced by maceration is ascertained. They are afterwards placed between the two stones mentioned, reduced to a fine paste, and then baked under the ashes in the same way that our bush people bake their damper.
Pounding, Maceration.
46. Encephalartos Miquelii, F. Muell. Dwarf zamia. Banga.
Found generally in the same locality as the palm nut, with a large cone fruit not unlike a pine-apple. The seeds, orange-red when ripe, and separating freely, are baked for about half an hour under ashes; the outside covers and the stones are then broken, and the kernels, divided by a stroke of the Kondola, are put into a dilly-bag and carried to a stream or pond, where they remain six or eight days before they are fit for eating.
47. Encephalartos sp. Leichhardt's aborescent zamia.
Prepared in the same way as E. Miquelii.
Mr. Norman Taylor, of the Geological Survey Staff in Victoria, who was engaged in exploration under the Government of Queensland, supplies the following statement relative to the customs of the natives of York Peninsula:—"Their cooking is done by scooping a hole in the saud in the river-beds, making a fire, and piling stones on. When sufficiently heated, the wood is taken away,
