Their ordinary food consisted of kangaroo, emu, snakes, rats, and fish; an especial dainty being a worm found in the black ava tree, or in any decaying trunk.
These worms were generally grilled on hot stones, and eaten several at a time like small whitebait.

I often ate them myself, and found them most palatable.

After breakfast the women of the tribe would go out hunting roots and snaring small game for the afternoon meal, while the men went off on their war and hunting expeditions, or amused themselves with feats of arms.

The children were generally left to their own devices in the camp, and the principal amusement of the boys appeared to be the hurling of reed spears at one another.

The women brought home the roots (which they dug up with yam sticks, generally about four feet long) in nets made out of the stringy parts of the grass tree; stringy bark, or strong pliable reeds, slung on their all-enduring backs.