has no effect upon the kernel, which still acts both as a strong
emetic and cathartic.

I have taken some trouble to ascertain if any traditional notion exists
amongst the natives which would in any way account for their having first
obtained a knowledge of the means by which they could render the
deleterious pulp of the Zamia nut a useful article of food; but in this,
as in all other similar instances, they are very unwilling to confess
their ignorance of a thing, and rather than do so will often invent a
tradition. Hence many intelligent persons have raised most absurd
theories and have committed lamentable errors.

ROVING HABITS DEPENDANT ON FOOD.

The other kinds of food which I have mentioned on the list scarcely
require a particular description. They are collected by the people as
they rove from spot to spot, and are rather used as adjuncts to help out
a meal than as staple articles of provision; several of them are however
much liked by the natives, and they always regulate the visits to their
hunting grounds so as to be at any part which plentifully produces a
certain sort of food at the time this article is in full season: this
roving habit produces a similar character in the kangaroos, emus, and
other sorts of game which are never driven more from one part than from
another. In fact they are kept in a constant state of movement from place
to place; but directly a European settles down in the country his
constant residence in one spot soon sends the animals away from it, and
although he may in no other way interfere with the natives the mere
circumstance of his residing there does the man on whose land he settles
the injury of depriving him of his ordinary means of subsistence.

EDIBLE PRODUCTIONS VARY IN DIPFERENT DISTRICTS. COMMON RIGHTS IN CERTAIN
FOOD.

If the land of any native is deficient in any particular article of food,
such as, by-yu, mun-gyte (Banksia flowers) etc., he makes a point of
visiting some neighbour whose property is productive in this particular
article at the period in which it is in perfection; and there are even
some tracts of land which abound in gum, kwon-nat, etc., which numerous
families appear to have an acknowledged right to visit at the period of
the year when this article is in season, although they are not allowed to
come there at any other time. This is a curious point and might throw
some further light upon the subject of their families or lines of
descent.

It must b