GRILLED SNAKE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 154, 22 February 1932, Page 6

GRILLED SNAKE

XMAS DINNER A LA CARTE WITH AN OLD CONVICT. RIGOURS OF PENAL DAYS. A Christmas dinner provided by an old convict stockrider to Mr. Edgar Foreman, a well known Brisbane resident, when he was working on the property of the late Tom Petrie at the North Pine River sixty years ago, was lately recalled by the latter. Mr Foreman said that the old convict, who went by the name of Ned Dans, was a dried-up, wizened fellow, who had only one eye. "We both bunked in the same hut, and cooked our tucker together," he said, "and I got to like the old chap, for he was good company. He showed me his back one day; it was just like tanned hide. The reason for that, he told me, was that when he, with other convicts, was clearing the scrub from what is now the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, convicts who offended in any way were ordered to kneel down near a tree stump, take off their shirt and hat, and clasp their hands together in front of them. There they would have to remain for Ijpurs a stretch, exposed to the burning sun." Later, Mr. Foreman said, old Ned was sent to another part of the property known as Petrie's Pocket, near the mouth of the river. There he had to live in a bark hut, and look after the cattle. Before leaving for his new station, however, he got Mr. Foreman to promise to have the next Christmas dinner wtih him. When Christmas came he was in high delight at receiving his guest in his little hut. The hut was isolated from any other settlement; it was clean and well kept, had a dirt floor, and contained a bunk and a bark table. The table was laid wtih tin plates and two pannikins; there was no cloth. "I remember, even to-day," said Mr. Foreman, "how proud the old man was, and how happy that I had come to him, and I noticed how his solitary eye gleamed with satisfaction as he dished up the viands. But judge my surprise when I saw what the viands were! "First came kangaroo rat soup, then grilled carpet snalce, then baked porcupine, winding up with plum pudding and billy tea. I am sorry to say that old Ned was not too pleased because I did not do full justice to his wonderful spread," Mr. Foreman confessed. "You see, I never did hanker after grilled snake, or baked porcupine, let alone kangaroo rat soup."