Blacks of the Manning River District, New South Wales, 1851-1912 - Page 19

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quickly, they kept them sharp and depended on them greatly

to get their living = cutting out Opossum's from the hollow

trees = and geting honey from the native Bees = there were no

English Bees in the Bush when we first came, not  until some

time after, Mr  Jospeph Andrews brought a hive up from the

Hunter and they soon got about in the Bush, if a Black

was walking in the Bush with you and he saw a tree

with signes of a grub in it, out came the tomahawk,& the

grub cut out and eaten raw, but if they got a lot they were

taken to camp and roasted - nicely roasted they realy

were not bad, I remember the first I tasted, I was falling

a Wattle tree and there was a beauty in it - biger than

your first finger = I was by my self and as there was a

nice fire burning near I thought I would try it so

I roasted it to a turn = beautifuly brown = took it

up and had a good look at it = hesetated a good

bit = then had a bite and  realy  it was not bad. I

have eaten them since roasted but I never could

skrew  up to try them Blackfellow stile - raw, those

out of the Wattle tree are the best = out of the Figtree

I did not like - they tasted too much of  Figtree, I

would never starve if I had a tomahawk and there

were grubs about, The A.A Co's  manager at Gloucester

used send the Blacks out to get them &  had them

roasted and brought on to the table, he is the only

one I ever heard o doing that = [ Before the Whites

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