Forest Walk. My Latest Video.

Forest Walk is the result of my searching for a large red dinner plate sized fungus that one of my sons found whilst bushwalking in our forest. I never did find it, but decided to use the footage that I had anyway. This is an example of paying attention to your surroundings, & noting anything that may be of use to you now or later on.



MANNA GUM/RIBBON GUM.



One of the manna gum trees, Eucalyptus viminalis, is listed by Fujita as being pollinated by the grey-headed flying fox. The manna gum tree is also a honey tree. Bees as well as bats seek out the sweet nectar of the tree's flowers.


The manna gum tree is so named because a sweet red gum oozes from the leaves and damaged bark. The gum was eaten in early times by aboriginal Australians. It is still collected and savoured by human beings.


Manna gum medicine: Manna gum has a mild laxative effect. Oil from the leaves fights influenza viruses. Aching limbs can be relieved by a soak in a decoction of manna gum leafy twigs.


Other uses: E. viminalis is a source of a multi-use essential oil. The sweet leaf and bark manna is incorporated into adhesives and the bark is a source of tannin.


http://www.batplants.co.uk/manna%20gum.htm

Foraging.

FORAGING.




How much do you see on your bush walks? I would imagine that primitive man was always on the look-out for useful items along the way. So here is something you can try next time you are out and about, something that may add a little more interest and adventure to your trekking or bush walks.


Do you have a haversack? A haversack is a bag with one strap, a knapsack has two straps. For this exercise we only really need a haversack, a bag that is easy to get into whilst on the trail without having to take it off.

Next time you are out and about, take the haversack with you and collect as many useful items as you can that you find along the way. You don’t need a lot of any one thing, and ideally these items should be natural things that are normally found in nature.

I want you to set yourself a scenario. Let us say you are a hunter and forager, you are on the move from one area to another. You know that when you camp for the night there are certain things you are going to need to be comfortable, so you need to look for these items along the trail. You are also going to need a good camp site and shelter. You can’t pack these in your haversack, but you can store them in your memory. In reality you never know when a natural shelter along the way might come in handy, say as shelter from a sudden storm. Or if it is getting late, now might be as good a time to stop and camp as any.

How good is this natural shelter? A rock overhang or just a hollow fallen tree? Maybe it is not a hollow tree, maybe it. Is just a fallen tree that affords some shelter under it or just along side of it. Maybe you can add to this fallen tree to make a better shelter. You can either stop and do this, or you can just memorise it for later. If you have a pencil and pad on you, you can just jot it down.


So what will you need when you stop for the night? Well let’s start with a fire. If it is raining or the ground is wet or covered in snow, all the better for this exercise. You have to keep an eye open for areas that will keep tinder and kindling dry. Remember that tinder is what catches a spark, and kindling is what actually flames. Tinder can be many things, punk wood is probably the most common, this is the dry rotted soft wood that can often be found in the base of dead fallen trees. Some fungus like the Horse-Hoof fungus or here in Australia the Ryvardenia Cretacea. The dried heads of the Cattail or Cumbungi. The fungus grows on trees, so you will have to look up to find these.

Fomes Fomantarius.

Amadou.

Ryvardenia Cretaceus

Ryvardenia Cretaceus

Punk Wood.

Cattail.

Kindling is dried grass and leaves, twigs and sticks. The sticks need to be dead, not green. But at the same time they should be firm and not rotten, and you will need a variety of sizes so you can build your fire slowly.

When you find this good camping place are you going to set up a trap line? If so then you need to look out for any particular shaped limbs that you may need. A forked limb is good for making trap pegs, with one side of the “V” longer than the other for hammering into the ground.

Food plants are good items to look for, like I said, you don’t have to collect a lot unless you actually intend to make a meal, but you can just collect a leaf here and a flower there as you go along. What do you have in your area? Dandelion leaves and flowers? Cattail shoots, bases and roots? Stinging nettles? Dock leaves? If you have a wild plant book for your area, why not take it along with you and see what you can find.

Dandelion.

Nettles.

Dock.

Appleberry.

Blackberry.

Warrigal Greens.

Cordage is always a handy item to have with you, and if you can find the materials to make cordage along the way all the better. You can sit in your shelter at night and make cordage in front of the fire. So what can you use for cordage? Well practically any plant fibre, it is just a matter of which is the best for the job in hand, which is the strongest. The dried leaves of the cattail will work after soaking in water for a while, but it does not make a very strong cordage. Nettle fibre is good as is blackberry vine, but I must admit I have not tried either as yet. Mostly I use the inner bark of the Stringybark tree which is plentiful around here. But I have used grass, goat hair, wool fleece, horse hair, leather, green hide, rawhide, tree bark as is without cording the same as rawhide. Whenever I see anything along the trail that I think may make cordage, I pick some and try it.

Cordage.

Throwing Sticks.

How about tools? What can be used for tools? Bone, wood, stone, shell. John at Musings Of Murphyfish http://murphyfish-musing.blogspot.com/ found several useful items on one of his walks. Pine cones for instance, great kindling. Foraging like this can be good fun, and it trains your brain to recognise useful items even when you are not actually looking for them. Good luck.

Living Among the Mohawks, 1644.

Joseph Brant

Portrait by

George Romney

The painting is inscribed

"Thayeadanegea, Joseph Brant, the Mohawk Chief"

The principal nation of all the savages and Indians, hereabouts with which we have the most intercourse, is the Mohawks who have laid all the other Indians near us under contribution.



The people and Indians here in this country are like us Dutchmen in body and stature; some of them have well formed features, bodies and limbs; they all have black hair and eyes, but their skin is yellow. In summer they go naked, having only their private parts covered with a patch. The children and young folks to ten, twelve and fourteen years of age go stark naked.


In winter, they hang about them simply an undressed deer or bear or panther skin; or they take some beaver and otter skins, wild cat, raccoon, martin, otter, mink, squirrel or such like skins, which are plenty in this country, and sew some of them to others, until it is a square piece, and that is then a garment for them. . . They make themselves stockings and also shoes of deer skin, or they take leaves of their corn, and plait [braid] them together and use them for shoes.


They generally live without marriage; and if any of them have wives, the marriage continues no longer than seems good to one of the parties, and then they separate, and each takes another partner. I have seen those who had parted, and afterwards lived a long time with others, leave these again, seek their former partners, and again be one pair.


The women, when they have been delivered, go about immediately afterwards, and be it ever so cold, they wash themselves and the young child in the river or the snow. They will not lie down (for they say that if they did they would soon die), but keep going about. They are obliged to cut wood, to travel three or four leagues with the child; in short, they walk, they stand, they work, as if they had not lain in, and we cannot see that they suffer any injury by it. . .


The men have great authority over their concubines, so that if they do anything which does not please and raises their passion, they take an axe and knock them in the head, and there is an end of it. The women are obliged to prepare the land, to mow, to plant, and do everything; the men do nothing, but hunt; fish, and make war upon their enemies.








They are very cruel towards their enemies in time of war; for they first bite off the nails of the fingers of their captives, and cut off some joints, and sometimes even whole fingers; after that, the captives are forced to sing and dance before them stark naked; and finally, they roast their prisoners dead before a slow fire for some days, and then eat them up. The common people eat the arms, buttocks and trunk, but the chiefs eat the head and the heart.


Our Mohawks carry on great wars against the Indians of Canada, on the River Saint Lawrence, and take many captives, and sometimes there are French Christians among them.


They spare all the children from ten to twelve years old, and all the women whom they take in war, unless the women are very old, and then they kill them too. Though they are so very cruel to their enemies; they are very friendly to us, and we have no dread of them.


We go with them into the woods, we meet with each other, sometimes at an hour or two's walk from any houses, and think no more about it than as if we met with a Christian. They sleep by us, too, in our chambers before our beds. I have had eight at once lying and sleeping upon the floor near my bed, for it is their custom to sleep simply on the bare ground, and to have only a stone or a bit of wood under their heads. In the evening, they go to bed very soon after they have supped; but early in the morning, before day begins to break, they are up again.


They make their houses of the bark of trees, very close and warm, and kindle their fire in the middle of them. They also make of the peeling and bark of trees, canoes or small boats, which will carry four, five and six persons. In like manner, they hollow out trees, and use them for boats, some of which are very large.


Their weapons in war were formerly a bow and arrow, with a stone axe and mallet; but now they get from our people guns, swords, iron axes and mallets.


Their money consists of certain little bones, made of. shells or cockles, which are found on the sea-beach; a hole is drilled through the middle of the little bones, and these they string upon thread, or they make of them belts as broad as a hand, or broader, and hang them on their necks, or around their bodies. They have also several holes in their ears, and there they likewise hang some. They value these little bones as highly as many Christians do gold, silver and pearls; but they do not like our money, and esteem it no better than iron."


References:


This eyewitness account appears in: Jameson, J. Franklin (ed.), Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664 (1909); Ellis, David M. (et al), A Short History of New York State (1957).


How To Cite This Article:


"Living Among the Mohawks, 1644," EyeWitness to History, (2007).



http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/