Pituri - the Australian Aboriginal LSD - a chronological bibliography
Pituri (Duboisia hopwoodii) is a member of the Solanaceae family, native to most inland
areas of all states and territories of Australia, except Tasmania .... Aboriginal tribes traded the dried leaves of this species over great distances ... [it] being highly valued as a narcotic stimulant [and] the definitive Australian psychoactive plant species (Herbalistics 2023).
For thousands of years Pituri (Duboisia hopwoodii) has been known about and used by the Australian Indigenous population for both medicinal, ceremonial and recreational purposes. Since 1788 its local designatoon has been recorded by non-Aboriginal informants and researchers with a wide variety of spellings and pronunciations, due to miss-hearing, lack of knowledge of phonetics, the unique speech and language patterns of the Australian Aborigines, and misspellings. All the following variants of the word pituri are known:
- bedgery, betcheri, boodjerrie, boodjerre, budgeri, bedgeree, bidgeree, pecherie, pecheringa, pedgery, petchere, petcherie, peturr, petury, picherie, pidgery, pitchera, pitcheri, pitcherie, pitcherrie, pitcherry,pitchery, pitchiri, pitchiry, pitchuri, pitchurie, piteri, pitjiri, pitjuri, pituri, piturie, piturr, piturrba, pitur, puljantu.
These words are all etymologically related. According to the Proto-Australian Aboriginal language research of Dr. Chris Illert, they are based on two root words describing a masticated, globular thing which provides energy and heightened senses. Illert's etymological and phonetic description of pituri is as follows:
burʊ [bur : aya] = energetic, awake; and gurʊ [gur : aia] = globular.
bur(ʊ) : gurʊ
bur : ger : ee [pedgery / pitcheri]
energetic, awake, globular (chewed) thing
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Chronological references
An outline of the historic use of pituri can be garnered from the referrnces presented below. The following items specifically refer to the use of pituri as a chewing plant by Australian Aboriginal peoples, and its scientific study and analysis beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century and leading up to the present day.
1770
- Joseph Banks, Endeavour Journal, Volume II, entry for 26 August 1770. This is the earliest reference to the chewing of leaves - possibly pituri - by the local people. Banks was also a fan of hemp (marijuana). Extract:
We observd that some, tho' but few, held constantly in their mouths the leaves of an herb which they chewd as a European does tobacca or an East Indian Betele. What sort of plant it was we had not an opportunity of learning as we never saw any thing but the chaws which they took from their mouths to shew us; it might be of the Betele kind and so far as we could judge from the fragments was so, but whatever it was it was usd without any addition and seemd to have no kind of effect upon either the teeth or lips of those who usd it.
1802-5
- English scientist and botanist Robert Brown, whilst on the 1802-1805 expedition with Matthew Flinders, collected and named a genus of plant Duboisia after the French botanist Dubois and the specific plant Duboisia myoporoides. He published this in his Prodomus florae Novae Hollandiae et insulae Van Diemen, London, 1810.
1847
- Edmund Kennedy, in his 1847 record of a journey beyond the Barcoo River, described a leaf, tasting strong and hot with the aroma and flavour of tobacco, being chewed by the Aboriginal people. Reference: E. Beale (editor), The Barcoo and beyond, 1847: the journals of Edmund Besley Court Kennedy and Alfred Allatson Turner with new information on Kennedy's life, Blubber Head Press, Hobart, 1983. Kennedy noted the Aborigines:
... chewing a leaf similar in taste and smell to tobacco...
1861
- Pituri was first formally described by botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1861 in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae and given the name Anthocercis hopwoodii. In 1876 he transferred the species to the genus Duboisia, thereby creating the current scientific term for pituri: Duboisia hopwoodii.
- Burke and Wills, on their ill-fated 1861 journey through inland Australia, were given food by local Aboriginal people on 7 May and also something to chew, which William John Wills found highly intoxicating, even in small amounts. Wills noted:
... stuff they call bedgery or pedgery; it has a highly intoxicating effect when chewed even in small quantities. It appears to be the dried stems and leaves of some shrub. (Wills 1863)
The only survivor, John King, noted that it was:
... nasty dirty-looking balls of chewed grass....(producing) much the same effect as two pretty stiff nobblers of brandy. (Cribb et al., 1991)
1863
- W. Johnston, Presentation of nardoo seed and pitcherry, etc., Proceedings of Royal Society of Tasmania, April 1863. Records the presentation to the Society by W. Johnson of specimens of:
...Pitcherry, a narcotic plant brought by King the explorer, from the interior of Australia, where it is used by the natives to induce intoxication.
- William Wills, Successful exploration through the interior of Australia, from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, 1863; Facsimile edition, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 1996.
1871
- 19 December, Maryborough Chronicle: Report on a search for a missing man in the area of the Barcoo, Queensland. One of the searchers located the following:
He also got possession of a bag containing pituri, a shrub which the old blacks use as a stimulant, and which has the same effect upon them as intoxicating liquors have upon Europeans... [From a South Australian paper we glean that the telegraph parties in the interior found tbe blacks chewing the native tobacco as a stimulant.— Ed.]
1872
- Joseph Bancroft, The pituri poison, Paper read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, Government Printer, Brisbane, 1872. Republished in the Brisbane Courier, 4 April 1872:
"Pituri" of Sub-Inspector Gilmour.
Observations on Pituri poison by Dr. Bancroft, read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, March, 1872.
On February 9th of this year, I obtained from Mr. Gilmour a quantity of dried leaves, and the particulars here narrated, of a plant used by the natives as a stimulating narcotic. Those leaves, called "pituri," were obtained in the neighborhood of the water-hole Kulloo, eight miles beyond Eyre's Creek. The use of the pituri is confined to the old men of a tribe called Malutha, all the males of which tribe are circumcised. The pituri is carried in neatly-made oval pointed bags, specimens of which Mr. Gilmour has brought. The old men, before any serious undertaking, chew these dried leaves, appearing to use about a tablespoonful. A few twigs are burnt, and the ashes mixed therewith. After a slight mastication, the bolus is placed behind the ear - to be again chewed from time to time - the whole of which is at last swallowed. The native, after this, is in a sufficiently courageous state of mind to fight, or undertake any serious business. One old man Mr. Gilmour and party fell in with refused to have anything to say or do until he had chewed the pituri ; after which he rose and harangued in grand style, ordering the explorers to leave the place. The pituri caused a severe headache in persons who tried it. The dust given off in examining the leaves causes sneezing. The above is the information supplied by Mr. Gilmour.
Mr. Wills' diary from Cooper's Creek homewards (page 283) has the following:-
"May 7, 1861. In the evening various members of the tribe came down with lumps of nardoo and handfuls of fish, until we were positively unable to eat any more. They also gave us some stuff they called bedgery, or pedgery ; it has a highly, intoxicating effect when chewed even in small quantities. It appears to be the dried stems and leaves of some shrub."
The pituri consists of leaves broken into small particles, and mixed with it are acacia leaves, small dried berries containing reniform seeds and unexpanded flower buds of the shape of a minute caper. The seeds picked out have as yet not germinated, indeed have decayed and from this reason, together with the brittle and broken condition of the laves, causes me to suspect that they have been drled by artificial heat. I do not, however, find any scorched leaves or burnt matter mixed therewith. Mr. Gilmour also gave me a small bunch of twigs, some as thick as a pen-holder ¡ these appear as if broken from a tree. The leaves are narrow lanceolate, and when complete may be an inch long and an eighth of an inch broad. It is impossible to find an entire leaf.
On February 23, I made an infusion of one drachm of the pituri in one drachm of water. Of the solution obtained, thirty drops were in jected under the skin of a half-grown cat; the animal died from suffocation in one minute, the heart continuing to beat for some time afterwards. Seven drops of the same solution in jected under the skin of a puppy caused death by suffocation in a minute and a half, the heart continuing to beat us before. The same quantity killed small rats with great rapidity. On March 3, I commenced experiments with the extract obtained by evaporating the watery infusion. The extract is of the consistency of treacle, and can be conveniently dropped from an ounce vial. By evaporating the infusion carefully, minute crystals are formed in great plenty. The crystals are acicular bundles, and are beautifully tinted by the polariscope. In the infusion is generated a yellow matter, which falls to the bottom of the vessel. This yellow substance has no poisonous properties. The extract also undergoes this change generating carbonic acid by fermentation. A yellow deposit also goes to the bottom. This, as in the case of the infusion, contains large compound spherical cells, also crystals, which are probably the active principle. The poisonous effects are not destroyed by fermentation.
On frogs, a solution of the extract acts speedily, if applied to the skin. Increased activity of respiration occurs, followed by torpidity ; during which the frog can be placed in curious attitudes, from which he will make no efforts to move, The web of the foot can be placed under the microscope, to examine the circulation of the blood, very conveniently when in this torpid state ; the heart continues to beat feebly for many hours. Frogs will recover after twenty or thirty hours of this condition of inactivity. Grasshoppers will come to life again after an apparent death of two or three days. The warm-blooded animals will not recover if respiration be not re-established very shortly after the suffocative attack. When from a quarter to half a drop of the extract diluted with water has been injected under the skin of a rat, the following symptoms are observed:-In loss than one minute, the animal becomes very excitable, and jumps and starts with the slightest provocation; it appears to have lost the power of restraining itself. Shortly, irregular muscular motions occur, passing rapidly into a general convulsion. The animal opens its mouth as if longing to breathe, but no regular respiratory act follows. Opisthotonos is well marked in some cases. After a few seconds of quiet from muscular effort, during which the heart may be seen to act powerfully, a gasp for breath follows, which is generally a sign that the poison will not prove fatal. This is succeeded by others, and very shortly rapid respiration takes place of a feeble kind. The animal now gradually regains consciousness. The respirations full to the normal standard. Weakness and torpidity remaining for several hours, during which, however, voluntary exertion takes place with very little stimulus. In two instances death took place during this period of torpidity. The effects of the pituri are -
1st. Period of preliminary excitement from apparent loss of inhibitory power of the cerebrum, attended with rapid respiration ; in cats and dogs, with vomiting, and profuse secretion of saliva.
2nd. Irregular muscular action, followed by general convulsion.
3rd. Paralysis of respiratory function of medulla.
4th. Death or 5th. Sighing inspirations at long intervals.
6th. Rapid respiration and returning consciousness.
7th. Normal respiration and general torpidity not unattended with danger to life.
The poison, given by the mouth, acts with less vigor ; injected into the intestines the results are more certain. The animal has a longer stage of excitement, the convulsive fit is not so severe, and recovery is more certain. Torpidity remains for some hours. A quarter of a drop injected under the skin of a rat, causes excitement, the animal starts with slight noises, may fall over a few times from very strong muscular irregularities ; remains excitable for some time, then gradually becomes torpid. In small medicinal doses we may expect to find the period of excitement and the torpidity to be the only marked symptoms. In cats and dogs the excitement is not marked, but vomiting of a violent kind occurs.
Mr. Moffatt, chemist, of Brisbane, has a small quantity of the pituri. The distance of the neighborhood from which it was obtained causes me to hope that before long seeds of the plant may be collected, and some exact botanical knowledge of it, and the localities in which it grows, may be forthcoming.
1873
- Dr G. Bennett in the New South Wales Medical Gazette, May 1873, says Pituri is a stimulating narcotic and is used by the natives of New South Wales in like manner as the Betel of the East. His comments from Notes on Queensland was published in the Sydney Mail on 12 April 1873:
Mr Hill gave me a preparation made from the leaves of a plant named by the aborigines of the interior 'Pituri,' it was obtained by Mr. James Gilmour when in search of Dr. Leichhardt, from the natives, in the form of dried leaves and was used by them as a stimulating narcotic, in a similar manner to the betel of the East and forming a substitute for tobacco. It was erroneously labelled on the bottle containing the preparation 'Pituri oil,' for on examination it was found to be spirituous as if the leaves had fermented and become spirituous in the act of distillation. The botanical characters of the plant could not be ascertained from the leaves received being dried and in so pulverised a state that a perfect leaf could not be found. Mr. Hill informed me that he found the effect of a teaspoonful of this liquid in a glass of water was to produce a burning sensation in the stomach, followed by vomiting and giddiness.
1876
- Ferdinand von Mueller transfers the species to the genus Duboisia.
- R.B. Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria and other parts of Australia and Tasmania, 1876; John Currey, O'Neil, Melbourne, 1977.
1877
- Ferdinand von Mueller, Pituri, Australian Medical Journal, 16 February 1877, 60–61. Letter to the editor. Published in the Sydney Morning Herald, 6 April 1877:
The Pitury Plant. Baron Mueller has written the following letter, respecting the plant Pitury, to the Australian Medical Journal .-"Sir - Some weeks ago I was asked by our last president about the origin of the Pitury, a stimulant said to be of marvellous power, and known to be in use by the aborigines of Central Australia. It so happened that after years of efforts to get a specimen of the plant, I at last, this week, obtained leaves, and although I have seen neither flowers nor fruits, and although these leaves are very similar to those of various otherwise widely disallied plants, I came almost with certainty, after due microscopic examination, pronounce those of the Pitury as derived from my Duboisia Hopwoodii, described in 1861 (Fragm. Phytogr. Austr. II., 138). This bush extends from the Darling River and Barcoo to West Australia, through desert scrubs, but is of exceedingly sparse occurrence anywhere. In fixing the origin of the Pitury, now a wide field for further inquiry is opened up, inasmuch as a second species of Duboisia (D. myoporoides, R. Br.) extends in forest land from near Sydney to near Cape York, and is traced also to New Caledonia, and lately by me also to New Guinea. In all probability this D. myoporoides shares the properties of D. Hopwoodii, as I now find that both have the same burning acrid taste. Though the first known species is so near to us, we never suspected any such extraordinary properties in it as are now established for the later discovered species. Moreover, the numerous species of the allied genus Anthocercis, extending over the greater part of the Australian continent, and to Tasmania, should now also be tasted, and further the many likewise cognate Schwankeas of South America should be drawn into the same events of research, nothing whatever of the properties of any of these plants being known. The natives of Central Australia chew the leaves of Duboisia Hopwoodii, just like the Peruvians and Chileans masticate the leaves of the coca (Erythroxylon coca), to invigorate themselves during their long foot journeys through the deserts. I am not certain whether the aborigines of all districts in which the Pitury grows are really aware of its stimulating power. Those living near the Barcoo travel many day' journeys to obtain this, to them, precious foliage, which is carried always about by them broken into small fragments, and tied up in little bags. It is not improbable that a new and perhaps important medicinal plant is thus gained. The blacks use the Duboisia to excite their courage in warfare; A large dose infuriates them. - Regardfully yours, Ferd. von Mueller, February 16, 1877.
- 6 March, Sydney Morning Herald. Article on Pituri.
Pitury. - For some time past it has been known that the Aborigines of Central Australia are in the habit of using a vegetable substance called "pitury," which is said to possess marvellous powers. By recent investigation Baron Mueller has discovered that this is nothing more than the leaves of a shrub called Duboisia Hopwoodii, which the natives chew, just like the Peruvians and Chilians masticate the leaves of coca (Erythroxylon coca), to invigorate themselves during their long journeys through the deserts. Baron Mueller has not ascertained whether the Aborigines of all districts in which the Pitury grows are really aware of its stimulating power, but those living near the Barcoo travel for many days journey to obtain this, which, the writer remarks, "is to them precious foliage, which is carried always about by them broken into small fragments and tied up in little bags. It is not improbable that a new and perhaps important medicinal plant is thus gained. The blacks use the Duboisia to excite courage in warfare, and a large dose infuriates them."
The late Mrs. Calvert, who was a keen observer of natural history in all its departments, seemed to be aware that the blacks of New South Wales were in the habit of using an allied species of Duboisia for similar purposes; for Dr. Woolis, in his "Contribution to the Flora of Australia," page 208, remarks:
"D. myoporoides," or, as some call it, the Cork Tree, is placed by Brown in the Solanum family, and probably possesses deleterious properties. I have been informed by Miss [Louisa] Atkinson (afterwards Mrs Calvert) that the Aboriginal natives used to prepare some stupefying liquid from it, and also that branches of the same tree, when hung up in a close room, have the effect of producing giddiness and vomiting in delicate persons. It is a rather curious fact that whilst the blacks near the sea coast use a species of Duboisia for some intoxicating properties which it is supposed to possess, the blacks of Central Australia chew the leaves of an allied species for some similar purpose. The subject is now being brought forward in the Australian Medical Journal, and it will be interesting to ascertain how far the statement respecting pitury can be maintained, and whether the plant can be applied to any useful purpose in medicine.
D. myoporoides is a shrub common in New South Wales, extending here and there from Illawarra to Northern Queensland. The flowers are small and white, forming panicles or clusters, and the berry minute and globular; whilst the leaves are of a dull green colour, form two to four inches long.nbsp;
In the catalogue for the Paris Exhibition in 1867, Sir William Macarthur describes the species as "a low branching small tree, with rough cork-like bark; wood white, very soft, and firm, excellent for carving."
- 9 March, Sydney Morning Herald: Response to earlier article on Pituri.
"Pituri," in our issue of Tuesday, Mr Edward S. Hill has forwarded to us the following additional information -
" Some years ago the Hon G.H. Cox gave to Mr Hill some dry leaves and small stems, cut and rubbed up which had come from far beyond the Barcoo country and which the aboriginals had given him while on a visit to one of his out-stations. He informed Mr Hill that the native name for it was 'pitcherine,' and that the aboriginals used it as we do tobacco, both for chewing and smoking, and it was very highly esteemed by them.
The natives make periodical excursions to gather this shrub, choosing that season of the year when the young Bitcherrigahs (Melopsittacus undulatus) are fully grown in their nests and can be gathered in thousands, enabling the travellers to fill their coolamans with them as they journeyed along, and thus providing most acceptable food, varied by such other birds, mammals, and reptiles as they may be fortunate enough to secure.
Subsequent to that, about four years ago, Mr Hill, in looking over a collection made by the lamented explorer Leichhardt, saw a small rush bag similar to what was described to him by Mr Cox, viz, a very finely plaited straw circle, doubled over to form a half-moon shape. This is sewn round the edge, a small opening being left at one corner to permit of the leaves being put in. On examining the contents a little scrap of paper was found in the bag with the word 'pitcherine' written upon it, said to be in Leichhardt's own handwriting.
Reference has been made to Duboisia myoporoides, a tree common along the coast, and well-known to the aborigines, as indeed are most other trees, for all of which they have distinctive names. Mr Hill has never known them to make any use of it, nor has he our heard that it possesses qualities productive of giddiness or nausea, although the blacks on several occasions have cut down trees of this species for him. Acacia falcata, or Weetgelin, or Mellewah of the aboriginals, will produce sickness by tasting the sap, and has the property of bringing the fish to the surface of the water, hence it is often called fish wattle. Duboisia is not properly included in the family Solonaceæ but should be classed under the kindred family of Scrophularineæ, according to Bentham and Mueller.
There are two kinds of trees, both called 'ngmoo' by the blacks. One of the half-moon shaped mat bags containing the dried and crumbled leaves of 'pitcherine,' was presented to Dr J.C. Cox by Mr Vincent Dowling, after his expedition into the interior. He described the blacks as setting great value upon it, and both chewing and smoking it. The use of a small quantity caused agreeable exhilaration, and when prolonged resulted in intense excitement. After chewing the leaves they plaster the plug, formed by so doing, behind the ears, as they believe the effect is intensified thereby.
- Joseph Bancroft, Pituri and Duboisia, Paper read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, Government Printer, Brisbane, 1877, 1-13.
- W.O. Hodgkinson, North West Exploration, Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command, Queensland Government, Brisbane, 1877.
1878
- 13 April, The Queenslander: An Australian Stimulant. Article on Pitcheri.
- S. Ringer and W. Murrell, On Pituria, Journal of Physiology, 1(5), September 1878, 377-383.
- S.M. Curl, On pituri, a new vegetable produce that deserves further investigation, Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, 2, 1878, 411-.
- J. Bancroft, Further remarks on the pituri group of plants, Paper read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, Government Printer, Brisbane, 1878, 1-4.
1879
- S. Ringer and W. Murrell, A few further experiments with pituria, Journal of Physiology, 2(2), 1879, 132–134.
- Pituri and human subjects, Lancet, 1 March 1879.
- J. Bancroft, Pituri and tobacco, Government Printer, Brisbane, 1879.
1880
- Archibald Liversidge, The alkaloid from pituri, Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 14, 1880, 123.
1883
- 25 August, Town and Country Journal. Illustrated article on Pituri.
Pituri (Duboisia and Anthocercis). Considerable interest is still taken concerning the Pituri, the native name of a medicinal plant, Duboisia Hopwoodii, used by the aboriginal tribes in Central Australia, and one of the very few articles in which the natives are known to barter. The high value which the blacks entertained for this shrub, and the fact that it was known that it passed from tribe to tribe, and was transported very long distances, attracted the attention and curiosity of explorers and botanists long before the plant itself was identified. The small supplies of dried leaves and twigs procured with difficulty from the natives were usually in the condition of cut tobacco leaf or snuff when submitted to phylologists for identification. We are not aware whether there are any specimens of this plant yet in cultivation, and in order that some of our readers may be induced to use their opportunities of procuring seeds for the purpose of culture, we publish some figures of the Pituri proper, as well as of the allied genus anthocercis.
As far back as 1872 a paper on pituri (then regarded as something mysterious as to its medicinal effects) was read before the Queensland Philosophical Society by Joseph Bancroft, Esq., M.D., of Brisbane. Again, in 1879, the same gentleman was enabled to give the society further particulars regarding the properties of Duboisia Hopwoodii, although then still very little known to the white settlers. From the latter paper we propose to give some extracts explanatory of the pituri. At the same time it may be mentioned that a paper was read before the Royal Society of N.S. W., on "An Alkaloid from Pituri" by Professor Liversidge, in 1880.
After explaining some experiments, made by M. Petit and other chemists, at his request when on a trip to Europe, the doctor said:- "I hope some future day to give a comparative account of the phenomena produced by piturine and nicotine. At present very little Pituri can be got, and the plant is not under cultivation. The nearest place we know it grows - Eyre's Creek - is 800 miles from here in a straight line." He then proceeds to quote a very interesting letter from a Mr. Sylvester Brown, a gentleman who had acquired considerable experience in what he termed "pituri country," as follows:
I have during the last few years passed several times through the belt of country in which pituri has hitherto only been found. It is situated, so far as my means of observation serve, with the 138th meridian of east longitude passing through the belt about the middle, and I have met with the shrub anywhere in the vicinity of the longitude mentioned between the 23rd and 24th parallel south latitude, with a depth of 50 miles east and west. The pituri shrub, when full grown, is about 8ft high, and the wood at the thickest part of the stem is up to 6in in diameter. When freshly cut the wood has a decided smell of vanilla. It is very light and close-grained ; colour, lemon. Dr. Bancroft's guess as to the seed is so far correct that the berry (which, when ripe, is black, and like a small black currant) has inside very minute kidney-shaped seeds. I have secured some of the seed, picked by myself from the growing tree, and hope, when passing through Brisbane, to let Dr. Bancroft have an opportunity of continuing his investigation of this rare plant by endeavouring to grow some of it. I have also cut some samples of the wood which I shall bring down unless absorbed, specimens and all, by early floods en route. I formerly heard many wonderful accounts of the rarity of pituri, and the great difficulty of procuring it. These absurd reports were strengthened by the extreme value placed on it by inside blacks, who could only obtain it by barter. "It grew on a rocky mountain in the Stony Desert, jealously guarded by the owners of the soil, who, in their periodical trips to obtain a supply, would have to carry three days' water in coolimans and paddymelon-skin waterbags." I also heard that it "grew only on a small extent of ground not exceeding 20 square miles -," whereas the fact is that it grows on the ridges of high spinifex sandhills, and which sandhills contain many cool springs and lakes, which will hold water much better than the fabulous stories told of pituri.
There is one beautiful lagoon, with two smaller ones, just about the South Australian border, on or about the 23rd parallel of latitude, which - the blacks averring that it had never before been visited by white men, or "Pirri birri," as they call them here - I took the liberty of naming "Pituria lagoons." The water in these lagoons is beautifully clear and soft, and when full they will last nearly, if not quite two years. Pituri grows on the sandhills round them. Should the Government wish to make a pituri reserve, here is the place for it. The country in the vicinity is of no use for pastoral purposes, so a reserve of about 20 miles square, or 400 square miles, would be a cheap concession.
The blacks break off the pituri boughs and tie them up in netting till dry then when thoroughly dry they break the leaves up and enclose them in closely netted bags in the shape of a crescent. These are easily carried for the purpose of barter which is carried on as far as Cooper's Creek and the Barcoo. Before chewing they burn the leaves of a shrub they call "montera," and moistening the ashes mix and chew. I have not noticed any abnormal result from the habit, though I have heard that a black unnaccus tomed to the weed becomes intoxicated thereby. I have some young plants in a box, which, if they grow, I shall endeavour to bring down but, as they have a journey of 1000 miles before them overland, the result is more than problematical, even should they elect to grow in the box. I am rearing one plant, which seems to be growing well, in my garden at the station, The seeds, however, may grow, and to facilitate selection of a proper soil I shall bring down a sample of mother sand for analysis. The suckers grow from long rough roots, which run about under the sand and throw up shoots as they go.
I have to thank Mr. Brown for some ounces of carefully dried pituri in flower, from which the drawing herewith was made. The seeds did not germinate, though cared for most diligently ; they were probably immature. The berries of the pituri bush most likely fall off directly they ripen as I find to be the case with D. myoporaides.
Mr. Wiltshire kindly forwarded me the following on pituri and smoking:-
For many years I have by hearsay been acquainted with the properties of pituri. In South Australia, in the neighbourhood of Lake Hope, the natives procure it from other natives making their annual visit south for the red ochre so valued by them. On questioning the visiting natives, who have all the marks of long travel, as to where pituri grows, I found them wonderfully reticent, the only answer I received being an indication by a motion of the hand in a northerly direction and a rattling noise made in the throat intended to signify that it was a long way from there. It is much sought after by the natives, who will give anything they possess for it - not for the purpose of exciting their courage or of working them up to fighting pitch, but to produce a voluptuous, dreamy sensation. I have heard of pituri producing a fierce excitement, but I have never seen it as far north as I have been. It may be that there are other plants that will produce the latter effect, but I have never seen or heard of them. Going into the interior from the coast about 16deg. or 17deg. south, you will meet natives whose 'possible sacks' or 'dilly-bags' contain frequently pituri or something very like it. On making them understand that you wish to know where it grows, they will point southwards and say " tir-r-r-r-r-r," meaning a long way. This, I am inclined to think, is the same plant as is used by their countrymen in the south.
Pituri is valued at as high a rate in the north as in the south, and cared for accordingly. In the north it is not unusual to find a description of mild tobacco in the dilly-bags of the natives along with a pipe or pipes - one kind being not unlike a cigar tube made by the toredo navalis in perforating the roots of the mangroves, destroying the root and leaving a shelly crust behind it but as this description can only be procured on salt water, natives in the interior make a rude pipe of a soft stone, the tube usually very short, of a pithy wood or a joint of a reed. I think it very likely that the natives have acquired this habit from Europeans, as we know that the "Beagle" was at anchor in the Victoria River for some months, 30 years ago, and it is possible that the crew communicated with the natives, as they had plenty of time and opportunities. Such a novelty as smoking would be sure to find adopters among the tribes in the vicinity. As for tobacco, they would naturally, after exhausting the small supply, try the plants around, till one was found with the necessary qualities. The pituri proper, I am inclined to think, grows between the latitudes of 21deg to 29deg south, in poor and sandy soil.
There were other novelties In the dilly-bags of the natives at times which we did not understand and the owners would not, in a few cases explain, as they persistently kept out of sight.
In the " Lancet" of January l8, 1870, a letter from Dr. Murray appeared, and I have his liberty to use it in any paper I may write on the subject :-
Seeing a notice of pituri in your journal of December 21, 1878, I at once recognised an old friend about which I picked up a few interesting facts while travelling many years ago in Central Australia. First, with regard to name: "Pituri" appears intended, but fails, to convey the native sound of the word. Howitt, the able leader of our party, who spoke the Cooper's Creek dialect fairly well, always spelt it "pitchery," which conveys the true sound, the accent being placed upon the ante penult "pitch," as in almost all trisyllabic words of this language, "Pitchery," therefore, for the more modern form, "pitchiri," is correct if it be desirable to maintain the native pronunciation of such words.
This substance was apparently unknown in 1862 (the year of Howitt's expedition) to natives south of the drainage line of Cooper's Creek, which trends south-west from its sources in the dividing ranges of Queensland (latitude 23deg, longitude 145deg about) to its terminal expansion and dessication in South Australia (latitude 30deg, longitude 187deg about). It is probable that its use formerly extended south of this boundary, and that it receded before the white man's tobacco,' now the chief luxury and current coin amongst the blacks of the out settlements. We often questioned the Cooper's Creek natives as to where they got their pitchiri and they invariably pointed northward as the quarter it came from, using at the same time the words 'tooch, tooch,' 'far away, far away.'
Howitt discovered that they traded regularly for it with the natives beyond Sturt's stony desert, and he found it convenient, on account of water, to follow their trading track in one of his exploration trips from our depot, or Cooper's Creek, to Wills's Creek beyond the desert (from about latitude 27deg 50min, longitude 141deg 5min, to latitude 25deg 48min, longitude 130deg 30min). Referring to this journey, he says, in a despatch from Angipena, south Australia, dated September 2, 1862:-
"The track I followed across the desert is one made use of by the natives of Lake Hope, Cooper's Creek and Kyeieron on their journeys to precure the pitchiri, so much, used by them as a narcotic, and on this account I conclude that it is the shortest route known to them." It is, I think, quite certain that this plant does not grow on Cooper's Creek, else the natives would possess it more abundantly, and would have pointed it out to us when so frequently questioned on the subject. Thus they made no secret of showing us their nardoo, papa, and bowa seeds, nor objected to inform us about their edible fruits, herbs, roots, and ground-nuts, although one would naturally expect them to be jealously watchful of every ounce of food in so inhospitable a country. Pitchiri, in short, was so scarce amongst the Cooper's Creek tribes that they parted with only small quantities in barter for wax matches, which was our golden currency. The men carried it in small skin bags tied round their necks or under the axille, but I never noticed the women with any. They never travel without it on their long marches, using it constantly to deaden the cravings of hunger and support them under excessive fatigue.
King, the survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition, who had lived seven months with these natives when rescued by Howitt, states that when his food became so scarce and bad as to barely support life, he sometimes obtained a chew of pitchiri, which soon caused him to forget his hunger and the miseries of his position.
It also plays an important part in the social rites of these natives. At their 'big talks' and feasts the pitchiri "quid" - for I can add no more appropriate word for it - is ceremoniously passed from mouth to mouth, each member of the tribe having a chew, from the pinaroo, or head man, downwards. This singular wassail cup never fails to promote mirth and good fellowship, or to loosen the tongues of the eloquent. I have not been able to ascertain if the excitement it produces can be pushed to actual intoxication, or whether natives suffer from its use. There is a curious mode of greeting on Cooper's Creek. When friends meet they salute with " gaow, gaow" (''peace, peace"), and forthwith exchange pitchiri " quids," which when well chewed are returned to their owner's ears! They extended this custom to us but the fullest appreciation of their hospitality in offering their highly-prized and indeed only stimulunt could never overcome our repugnance to the nauseous morsels hot and steaming from their mouths. I may add, they always accepted our want of politeness good-humouredly. The "fluid" which I have spoken of, which is carried behind the ear, is composed of pure pitchiri, green leaves, and wood ashes. Tho pure pitchiri I saw resembled unmanufactured tobacco of a very coarse kind, dried and pulverised. It had the same brownish colour but the stalks and midribs, which wore strong, preponderated over the finer parts of the leaf. I could never obtain an unbroken leaf nor even a good piece of one as a specimen. It had no particular smell, but a most pungent taste, which to me appeared like tobacco, and chewing it promoted a copious flow of saliva. The natives take a good pinch of pitchiri, and knead it with green leaves, I think to increase the size of the masticatory and moderate its power. 'We know that the Malays add sirih-leaf (Piper betel) to their areca nut, and lime to increase its stimulant properties ; but I could never discover the use of any condiment in this way by the Cooper's Creek blacks, all non-poisonous leaves appearing to be used indifferently. By the addition of wood-ash to the masticatory, the alkaloid is slowly liberated, and thus the strength of the "bolus" gradually augmented by keeping, as noticed in the " Lancet's " annotation. Natives, on using our tobacco, call it " whitefellow pitchiri," and, conversely, some whites who smoked pitchiri pronounced it a good substitute for tobacco. From these confessedly rough and ready data I have always up till now regarded this substance as a variety of Nicotiana. Its toxic action and that of tobacco, to judge by the experiments of Dr. Bancroft, are singularly alike; for the successive stages of mild cerebral excitement, loss of Inhibitory power, copious salivation and subsequent dryness of. mouth, irregular muscular action, nausea, dilatation of pupil, languor, drowsiness, and paralysis of the resplratory functions of the medulla appear in both. But the experiments of Drs Ringer and Murrell with alkaloid of pitchiri' point to marked physiological differences between it and nicotia more especially in the pupil indications. I must leave the discussion of these nice points to competent hands, as I aim no higher in this letter than to give a traveller's account of pitchiri.
Dr. Murray records the fact of using pituri in lieu of tobacco. Hodgkinson mentions the same in page 11 of my former paper. He says - "Sixteen years ago, when with Burke and Wills's expedition, subsequently with Mr. John M'Kinlay, and recently in the North-west Expedition, I used petcherie habitually, when procurable, in default of tobacco, and have very often chewed it both in its raw and prepared state." Thus, all evidence, practical and theoretical, goes to prove the identity of the two alkaloids piturine and nicotine; and it is a marvellous circumstance that the black man of Central Australia should have dropped upon the same narcotic principle as the red man of America in a plant differing so remarkably in external aspect, This discovery of the Australian aboriginals should tell somewhat in their favour as clever men, against the oft-repeated assertion of ethnologists as to their low position among the human races. Tho aborigines value not the nick-nacks and contrivances of the white man, yet are very much amused when the utility of such tools is explained to them. The forest is the home of the native, and there the white man often feels his own inferiority. In the wilds of Australia the blackfellows' power of climbing easily, puts him in possession of a meal under circumstances in which a white man must starve. As a hunter the black man is perfection itself,
Duboisia Myoporoides, a common plant near Sydney and along our sea coast as far as Twofold Bay, is very closely allied to Pituri, and possesses almost precisely the same chemical properties. The foliage of this tree, known popularly as cork tree, are already medicinally utilised in Europe as a remedy in opthalmia, but we cannot spare space to refer further to it at present. Dr. Woolls has expressed the opinion that the last-named species may eventually be relegated to the position of a mere variety-i.e., tho two plants may prove to be varieties of one species.
Explanation of Figures - Pituri. Fig. 1 shows a branch of the plant - Duboisia Hopwoodii. 2 and 3. Flowers of same natural size. 4. Enlarged pistil and stamens of same. 6. Pouch or bag in which the Pituri is kept for use.
- 9 September 1885, The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide:
Pituri. Relative to the plant "pituri,"or "pitchiri," of which a notice appeared in our columns last week, we have been favored by Mr. Thos, Gill with some extracts bearing on the subject which may be interesting to our readers. In a letter to the Lancet, dated January 1, 1879, Mr. J. P. Murray, L.R.C.S.I, (late surgeon to the Victorian contingent search expedition into Central Australia), said:-
"With regard to name, 'pituri' appears intended, but fails, to convey the native sound of the word. Howitt, the able leader of our party, who spoke the Cooper's Creek dialect fairly well, always spelt it 'pitchery,' which conveys the true sound, the accent being placed upon the antepenult 'pitch,' as in almost all trisyllabic words of this language. 'Pitchery,' therefore, or the more modern form, 'pitchiri' is correct, if it bedesirable to maintain the native pronunciation of such words. This substance was apparently unknown in 1862 (the year of Howitt's expedition) to natives south of the drainage line of Cooper's Creek, which trends south-west from its sources in the dividing ranges of Queensland (lat. 23', long. 145" about) to its terminal expansion and dessication in South Australia (lat. 30", long. 137° about). It is probable that its use formerly extended south of this boundary, and that it receded before the white man's tobacco, now the chief luxury and current coin amongst the blacks of the out settlements. We often questioned the Cooper's Creek natives as to where they got their pitchiri, and they invariably pointed northward as the quarter it came from, using at the same time the words 'tooch tooch' (far away, far away.) Howitt discovered that they traded regularly for it with the natives beyond Sturt's Stony Desert, and he found it convenient, on account of water, to follow their trading track in one of his exploration trips from our depot on Cooper's Creek, to Wills Creek, beyond the desert (from about lat. 27° 50', long. 141 5', to lat. 25° 4S', long. 139 30'.)" Further on he stated that the natives never travelled without it on their long marches, using it constantly to deaden the cravings of hunger, and support them under excessive fatigue. It also played an important part in the social rites of these natives. At their " big-talks " and feasts the pitchiri "quid" was ceremoniously passed from mouth to mouth, each member of the tribe having a chew, from pinaroo or head man downwards. The pitchiri seen by him resembled unmanufactured tobacco of a very coarse kind, dried and pulverised. It had the same brownish color, but the stalks and midribs, which were strong, preponderated over the four parts of the leaf. It had no particular smell, but a most pungent taste something like tobacco. Its toxic action and that of tobacco, judging from the experiments of Dr. Bancroft, are singularly alike; for the successive stages of mild cerebral excitement," loss of inhibitory power, copious salivation and subsequent dryness of mouth, irregular muscular action, nausea, dilatation of pupil, languor, drowsiness, and paralysis of the respiratory functions of the medulla, appear in both. Dr. Bancroft also found that it contained a new and most powerful poison, now called "piturine," one-twelfth of a grain of which would be a fatal dose. According to the Sydney Morning Herald the natives for a long time kept this narcotic a secret from the whites, and always refused either to show the tree or part with any of the dried leaves that they' carried about with them.
1889
- 8 November, Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton: Article on Pituri, extracted from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Pituri (The Narcotic of the Australian Aboriginals). S.M. Herald. No large community, either civilised or uncivilised, appears to he able to exist without its narcotic. That of Europe and North America is, of course, tobacco - a comparatively recent importation, and what took its place four centuries ago appears unknown. In China we have opium; in India and South-eastern Asia we have the betel nut, which, when cut into small pieces, mixed with shell-lime or "chunam," is wrapped in a portion of the leaf of the betel-pepper (Piper betle), and the whole chewed. In Peru and other parts of South America, the leaf of Erythroxylon coca (coca) is chewed, and the practice certainly enables those who indulge in the habit to withstand fatigue to a remarkable extent. In Arabia and the Somali Coast the place of this is supplied with a herb, "Taezi Kaat" (Catha edulis), the arrival of a caravan containing a supply of which being made the occasion of much rejoicing.
To come nearer home, we have the Kava Kava, the root of Piper methysticum, so extensively used in the preparation of a disgusting intoxicating beverage in the South Sea Islands. Other narcotics of more or less extensive use are gunjah (or bhang), guaza and churras, all obtained in India from the hemp plant. Besides these, in different parts of the world innumerable vegetable products are used to produce narcotism, showing how extensive and well-nigh universal is the craving for such substance.
The Sydney Morning Herald of the 12th ultimo contained the following telegram from its Wilcannia correspondent :-
"The Pytchery country is thickly populated with blacks, this being the season for gathering this extraordinary intoxicating and narcotic plant. In the first place, Australians have been by no means unaminous in regard to the spelling of the name the blacks give to their narcotic. "Pituri" is now the generally accepted spelling, but the following will also be met with :- "Pitchiri," "Pitchery," "Pedgery," "Bedgery," "Piturie," and even other forms.
Pituri has been known in a general way for thirty years and more, but not thirteen years have elapsed since Baron von Mueller showed that it is obtained from the Duboisia Hopwoodii, a plant belonging to the notoriously poisonous natural order Solanaceae. During the last sixteen years Dr. Joseph Bancroft, of Brisbane, has been working at Pituri, and we are indebted to him for much of our exact knowledge of the substancoe, which even now is surrounded with much romance and invention, and in times past it has supplied the story-teller and paragraphist with many far-fetched "yarns." It is in the form of leaves, more or less powdered, mixed with finely broken twigs, forming a herb often resembling maté or Paraguay tea. When comparatively fresh, if it has been kept dry, it produces sneezing if it be ever so carefully handled, but at present rates it is much too expensive to be a serious rival to snuff.
The blacks gather the tops of this plant early in the spring, i.e., in August or September, when the plant is in blossom. The plant is not a very showy one, and has only been figured some three or four times, so far as the writer is aware. The plant from which the figure now presented was drawn was collected on the Olive Downs, Grey Banges, New South Wales. A celebrated locality is Pituri Creek, Queensland, in lat, 23. The plant is dried, roughly powdered, and then packed in small netted bags, or skins, for transport. The skin bags are made of the covering of some small animal, with the flesh side outwards; but by far the greater number of pituri bags are woven. The material I believe to be obtained by the aborigines from gunny-bags or wool-packs. These are unpicked, woven into circular mats from six to nine inches in diameter folded over and stitched up, leaving a small hole in which to introduce the pituri. Sometimes they are ornamented with woven stripes of blue and red. It has been stated that in Northern Australia these bags are made from the split young leaves of a screw pine (Pandanus), but none such have fallen into my hands.
Sometimes pituri is chewed in company, a quid being passed round from one native to another; and when they have had sufficient it returns to the original owner, who carefully plasters it behind his ear to keep it safely until it is ready to go round again. This chewing business so fills the heart of the proprietor with good will towards men that he will often politely offer a share to a European, whose refusal to partake of the luxury is, doubtless, regarded with feelings of mingled pity and contempt. The aboriginals also make of pituri what, for want of a better name, may be called a cigar. It is damped, mixed with potash prepared from the ashes of suitable plants (the leaves of a plant called "monera" being burnt for this purpose, according to Mr. Sylvester Brown), and rolled into the shape of a cigar, which is either smoked or chewed, usually the latter.
In small quantities it has powerfully stimulating effect, assuaging hunger and enabling long journeys to be made without fatigue and with but little food. It is said to be used by the aboriginals to excite them before fighting or any important business. For instance, when Sub-Inspector Gilmour was at Eyre's Creek, in 1871, his party fell in with an old black who refused to have anything to say or do until he had chewed the pituri, after which he rose and haranged in grand style, ordering the explorers to leave the place. It would, therefore, appear to be a promoter of mock courage. Mr. Wilshire, another gentleman well acquainted with the blacks, however, states that it is not used for exciting their courage or for bringing them up to fighting pitch, but to produce a "voluptuous dreamy sensation" - like opium, presumably. Mr. Sylvester Brown states that he has never noticed any abnormal result from the pituri habit, though he has heard that a black unaccustomed to the weed becomes intoxicated thereby.
The observations of travellers vary much in regard to the effects of pituri. Certain it is that the blacks look upon tobacco as an efficient substitute for it, and where the interior natives can get a supply of that narcotic they do not trouble themselves very much about pituri. Conversely, Europeans who have been unable to procure tobacco have found pituri capable of supplying their want. The supplies of pituri which fall into European hands, and are brought to Sydney and other places, are very fitful, and this has militated against a thorough examination of the drug. Dr. Bancroft's opinion is entitled to most weight, and he does not look upon it as possessing any notable specific properties. On one occasion he summed up the matter in these words :-
"Of the medical uses of pituri little at present can be said. I have given it in some cases of extreme debility, but in doses much too small to enable me to speak of its value. I would expect it to be a tonic nervine that could be used along with alcohol, ether, and ammonia; perhaps also with strychnia, to the action of which it has a great resemblance."
While pituri is exceedingly patchy in distribution, it is found over a considerable area. It is essentially a product of the "dry country," and is found in the interior of all the colonies except Victoria; in other words, from the Darling and Barcoo rivers to Western Australia. Mr. Sylvester Brown, in a letter in The Queenslander early in 1880, quoted by Dr. Bancroft, ridicules the reports as to the scarcity of the plant, and states that "it grows on the ridges of high spinifex sandhills, and which sandhills contain many cool springs and lakes which will hold water much better than the fabulous stories told of pituri."
1890
- J.N. Langley and W.L. Dickinson, Pituri and nicotin, Journal of Physiology, 11(4–5), 1890, 265–306. DOI:10.1113/jphysiol.1890.sp000332.
- A.S. Vogan, The Black Police: a story of modern Australia, Hutchinson, London, 1890. Extract:
Westward across the dreary salt pans, were we to follow the pelicans and native companions in their evening flight, we should find bitter lakes, with dazzling fringes of snowy salt, and strange—and, according to native legend, Cunmarie-haunted—mound springs. There, also, in the neighbourhood of the rocky Gnallan-a-gea Creek and sand-locked Eta-booka, we may find the wondrous Pitchurie plant (of the poisonous order of Solanacea). Growing here, and nowhere else in Australia (at the time we write of), the location of this valuable native drug, with its lanceolate leaves and white flowers, — that fires the warrior, soothes the sufferer, and inspires the orator,— was shrouded by the cunning protectionist inhabitants of the wilds with the grimiest, most mysterious surroundings their medicine men could possibly invent. Black boiling lakes, Cerberus-like portiers, half man, half emu, and devils of the most uncivil type were supposed by the natives of other districts to guard this sole source of revenue, in the shape of boomerangs and red ochre, of the Paree and Mudlow country.... The old man has taken a plug of a tobacco-like compound from behind his ear and is chewing it, growing excited meanwhile. He is seeking for inspiration from a sort of hasheesh, formed of the dried and powdered leaves of the Pitchurie mixed with the ashes of the Montera plant. The author of the didactic dialogues of Thebes, the old world expounder of some of the theories of modern psychology, if he could revisit the earth and wend his way to Central Australia, would there find some of his ideas, or rather the ghostly semblance of them, passable as religious coinage amongst the old men of the tribes. Grand old Cebes taught that man had a sort of life of apprenticeship before he entered upon this world’s stage, and could (if pure of heart) sometimes take counsel in times of perplexity by looking backward into his sinless anterior existence. One of the virtues that the native drug Pitchurie is supposed to possess when used by the old men is the opening up of this past life, giving them the power and perquisites of seers.
- 13 December, Leader, Melbourne: Letter from A.W. Howitt.
Correspondence. To the editor of the Leader, Melbourne, 1st December, A.W.Howitt. Sir, — I observed in your Scientific Gossip in The Leader of 29th November, reference to a mixture of Duboisia Hopwoodi as a narcotic used by the Australian aborigines. It may perhaps interest you to know that I observed the use of this plant by the aborigines of Cooper's Creek, the Barcoo and in the Diamantina, when exploring during and after my search for the Burke and Wills expedition. I was informed by the Cooper's Creek blacks — of the Yantruwunta tribe — that they procured it from a locality to the North-west, at many days distant, and that they periodically sent an expedition to procure it. From the number of days stages mentioned by them, I estimated that the locality referred to must have been to the north of Lake Eyre, at a distance of say 250 miles, and in fact where I observe that in some maps the "Pitcheri Country" is indicated. I have since ascertained that this narcotic plant was used by tribes extended over a very wide range in Central Australia and that the Dieri to the South of Lake Hope also sent an expedition for "Pitcheri" as did the Yantruwunta. The "Pitcheri" was described to me as being obtained by drying the leaves and twigs of a bush in hot ashes, and that which I obtained from the blacks bore out this statement. It was carried in small bags made of twisted fibre, ornamented with strands of human hair. I have tasted it and found that it bad a taste resembling a light kind of tobacco. You will find a reference to Duboisia Hopwoodi in Baron V. Mueller, "Second Systematic Census of Australian Plants," Part 1, 1889, in which he assigns this plant a place among the Solanaceae. A reference is also given to his earlier description in Fragm. VIII. — 232 (1874), — Yours, &c., A.W. Howitt, Melbourne, 1st December.
1891
- L. Schulze, The Aborigines of the upper and middle Finke River: their habits and customs with introductory notes on the physical and natural-history features of the country, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 14, 1891, 201-246.
1893
- 28 January, Town and Country Journal: Summary of the Pitchery presentation to the Royal Geographical Society of Australian by a Mr . Purcell. Full article reproduced following.
"Pitchery". An Australian Narcotic Plant. At a meeting of tho Royal Geographical Society last week, Mr. Purcell delivered a lecture on the narcotic plant of Queensland, the pitchery or Duboisa Hopwoodii, together with an explanation of the customs of the northern territory blacks. Professor David presided, and in introducing the lecturer said Mr. Purcell was well known to them as a traveller of very wide Australian experience, who had made a special study of the manners and customs of the highly interesting race just passing away - the Australian aboriginals. Mr. Purcell had accompanied Burke and Wills in one of their expeditions in 1861. Since that time he had often been with exploring parties in Australia, and had repeatedly camped with the blackfellows, imitating their mode of living for a time in order to more readily obtain information he sought concerning the manners and customs of these people. Mr. Purcell then read his paper. He said he had travelled over nearly the whole of Queensland, and had only seen the plant growing in a very limited area west of the Mullyan River. The blacks never, if they could possibly help, allow white men to see it, and he himself only saw it after having been initiated into some of the peculiar rites of the aborigines. The pitchery was by no means plentiful. It grew in small clumps on the top of sandy ridges, and would not grow on the richer soil beneath - a fact which led him to believe that it never grew outside of Australia. The narcotic was used by the Urania tribes, whose centre was Toko, and by the Momamweras, and Ununderas. The plant was cooked by being placed in an excavation in which a fire had been burning. It then became light and ready for transport. As to its use in the form of snuff, it was an excellent remedy for headaches, and chewed it stopped all craving for food. In cases of neuralgia and asthma it had also been used with success. Its sustaining properties are remarkable. Mr. Purcell mentioned the case of a black boy who had travelled 120 miles in two days with no other sustenance than a chew of the narcotic weed. Ocular demonstration of its mode of preparation was given by one of the aboriginals present. Mr. Purcell concluded a highly interesting lecture by explaining the customs of the various tribes, and the terrible Sturt rite, and by means of a plaster cast explained the meaning of the marks on the back of the blacks. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded the lecturer.
- 25 March, The Australian Star, Sydney: Purcell's article on Pitury.
Our Australian Blacks. Some Facts About the Aborigines.
Ethnological, Historical and Descriptive - The Pitury Plant and Its Uses - The Blacks who use the Plant — Their Manners and Customs.
In a series of articles which it is intended to publish under this heading in each Saturday's issue of the Australian Star an attempt will be made to awaken an interest in the Australian aborigine among the public generally, by affording information of a char- acter that must prove instructive as well as entertaining. Of course the articles will in the main be a compilation, but original sources of unquestioned authority and experience will at times be drawn upon, and the varied aspects of the life of a race that is fast passing away will be presented to the reader. At the outset the writer has no hesitation in stating that the nature of the aborigine has been thoroughly misunderstood and has been greatly maligned ever since the white man set his foot on Australian soil ; and that, far from being the degraded and utterly depraved being he has been represented to be, the Australian black is, as a rule, possessed of considerable intelligence, naturally kindly and hospitable, and faithful to a degree, of which his white-skinned brother has little or no conception. No attempt will be made at connected narrative or histories of separate tribes or even of those of separate colonies, but the information will be given just as it lies to hand. As the idea of writing these articles was first suggested by the able and exceedingly interesting paper on " The Pitury Plant," which was read before the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia by Mr. A. B. Purcell some short time back, and as the accounts published of that lecture have been imperfect, it is regarded as only proper that it should appear as the first contribution to the subject.
My first acquaintance with the extraordinary narcotic plant, Pitury or Duboisia Hopwoodii, was in Melbourne during the year 1866, when my cousin, the late G.W. Johnston, exhibited some in a very crushed state, which he had procured from the blacks on Nelyambo station, 80 miles or more above Wilcannia on the Darling River in this colony. He, even at that early period, informed me that it was obtained by barter at the very least 300 miles beyond where Burke and Wills died on Cooper's Creek, which is below Innamincka, the present border town. A year or so later Mr. Johnston secured some when out west of Bulloo Downs, in the vicinity of Nockatonga station on the Wilson River, Queensland, and which, he said, came from beyond Cooper's Creek. It was a very poor sample, owing chiefly to the drought then prevailing, each man having to carry his blankets, rations, &c., on his back, and to drive at the same time a mob of fat cattle down the Paroo and Darling Rivers to Menindie township on foot, a distance of 360 miles, before fresh remounts could be got. Many of his specimens, therefore, had to be thrown away. This gentleman had a complete knowledge of the Darling, both frontage and back country, and had travelled over nearly the whole of Queensland. He invariably collected curios, weapons and implements from the natives; yet never found pitury growing. I myself have travelled through nearly every portion of the Australian colonies with the exception of West Australia, yet I never found it growing except within a small area west of the Mulligan River on the Northern Territory boundary with Queensland.
LOCATION. 138th meridian of east longitude, being about the centre of the area, and it ranges between the 23rd and 24th parallel of south latitude. I have often questioned the blacks of the Darling about "pitury', but they always said "long time now baal bin see one. I think it long way blackfellow dead," pointing towards the north-west. In 1876 on my arrival at Gooladdie station, on the Paroo River, Queensland, I found pitury there, which had been procured by barter with a few of the blacks. They had only small parcels of it, which came from the Wink o Marras, of Thargomindah, and Murgoins, at Ardock station, above Thargomindah on the Bulloo River, being passed to the latter tribes by the Thirallas of Nockatonga and Nocondra and the Bun tho Marras of Mount Margaret, at the head of the Wilson River.
KARGOOLUAHS. The Kargooluahs, of Gooladdie station, only allowed me to see the pitury after I had been present at several of their corroborees - at which they objected to the presence of any white man - and when I had been initiated into some of their mystic rites and ceremonies. In 1879 I journeyed overland to Melbourne, and when near Mount Murchison station, on the Darling River, I showed an old blackfellow from one of the stations above the mount my small stock of pitury. It was in dust, but he immediately recognised it, exclaiming "pitury, pitury, we big fellow hungry." His pleased expression and glistening eyes were too much for me. Giving him the lot, he ran to a dogwood tree and proceeded to prepare it at once - poor old chap, he had chewed his "pitury plug" from his youth, so he said. On several other occasions I found the blacks of the Darling knew and chewed this wonderful narcotic.
BARTER. In the early "eighties" I travelled through to the western boundary of Queensland from Adelaide, and while there I took special pains to find out where this plant was in request, also its locality, stages of growth and preparation.
GENERAL DIRECTION AND TRIBES THAT IT IS USED AMONGST. I was astonished to find it did not make its way to the Thompson River and the head of the Barcoo, but that its most general course was south-east of the Bulloo by the lower Diamantina, Cooper's Creek and Wilson's River, never getting higher than Comongin on the Bulloo or Gooladdie on the Paroo. It was an easy matter for this product to reach the Darling River occasionally, especially after a heavy wet season, when the Bulloo lakes were full to the brim, as well as the scanty clay-pans, blind creeks and gillgies across the dry back country to Momba Creek, Peri and Copago lakes on the Paroo. From thence it could be carried to the Darling by the Wee Water Springs or by Mount Murchison, and by this time it would be fully 18 months old, in a very pulverised state. Brough Smyth, in his admirable work on the aborigines of Victoria, page 222, has a foot-note referring to pitury, by the Government Botanist, who says, " it extends from the Darling and Barcoo to West Australia." The sandhills of the Darling are not suitable for pitury, they being much too loose and poor, whilst the scanty vegetation that does grow on them lives but a very short time after rain. The Barcoo country, also, with its rolling Mitchell and blue grass and black soil downs, is far too rich for it.
DR. BANCROFT. Then, again, Dr. Bancroft, in his pamphlet on "Pitury and Tobacco," page 6, says "In many parts of the interior, from Cooper's Creek to the Gulf of Carpentaria, the pitury grows." I know this country intimately, and am prepared to show that pitury has never been found or seen by either blacks or whites in either place, or in the country intervening.
HODGKINSON. Hodgkinson, in the same pamphlet, same page, is reported to have gathered it "on the Queensland border, latitude 22deg. 52min. 51sec., long. 135deg." This would bring him to Toko Waterhole, Linda Creek, or slightly below it, but the country about here is most unsuited for its growth, being principally ranges, with stoney ridges covered with gidyah and bendee, or giant mulgar. It is very evident that Hodgkinson secured his pitury about Littlo Toko, on the sandhills - the most northerly point where it grows. Little Toko is 30 miles south of Big Toko, being identical with the beautiful lagoon mentioned by Mr. S. Browne on or about lat. 23deg„ although some distance south of this. Mr. Sylvester Browne's account of this plant and its locality is the most correct that I have seen. Even in districts surrounding pitury country the station people have most fantastic ideas as to its growth, description and preparation. I have heard many aver that it grows the same as the saltbush, with leaves like pennyroyal, whilst others say it is reared only in stoney ridges in great abundance.
NARDOO. The same absurd stories are told about the wonderful qualities of nardoo, many speaking of its highly fattening and nutritious properties when made into cakes. I never yet saw a black take to this seed unless through sheer starvation, because it is hot to taste, disagreeable, and decidedly poor. Mungaroo, on the other hand, is a beautiful bulb, the most fattening of all, and often mistaken for nardoo, which is only useful as a sundial.
ALICE SPRINGS. While speaking of Toko I might mention that due west from this waterhole, past the Marqua Springs, on the O.T. line, the intervening country is good in places. Water can be got by sinking shallow wells, but there is no pitury growing through it.
TRIBES, AND DISTRIBUTION OF PITURY. The Urania tribe, whoso centre is Toko, the Mom um wer as, and also the Ur run de ras, who are to the west of the Uranias, use this narcotic; but the Ullaweenis at Alice Springs have never heard of it. Again, to the north of the last-mentioned tribe come the Woor a murgahs Umbyahs (the latter being next to the Workiis) and the Binbinekas, who roam over the country to the head of the Macarthur River, and these likewise use the plant. What is more, the Yarracomgahs of the Milne and Woodroffe Rivers, with the Workiis of the desert and Ranken, travel about a great deal, but they have never yet been able to pass pitury through their back country, which is very dry, the principal water being native sandwells.
SANDWELLS. The Workiis are responsible for sending it up the Ranken and James Rivers, and have special messengers for pitury barter, who secure all they can.
SPECIAL MESSENGERS. These men travel long distances, and make particular visits to the pitury stations, being always treated with the greatest respect. The Workiis also send it north of the rivers aforementioned to the Boorgarries, on the Ranken; Woor-a-moos, west of Alexander Downs; Wyangoos, west of Camooweal ; Gnowangoos, of Avon Down; the Chang a loos, next to the latter; and Goor-a-moos, off the Ranken, a little south ; also the Kalk a doons, on the Seymour River; and the Ingeledgees, near Camooweal, on the O'Shaughnessy, these being the people in direct communication with them. Nearly all the pitury for such tribes is got from the Uranias by way of Walayah, on the misnamed Pitury Creek, where none grows, but some also comes from the country by way of Rexboro and Glenormiston stations, and is then sent up the Georgiana River, although this latter route is seldom adopted.
NAME. Among the tribes that get it from the Workiis it is known as mar-jar, and down the Georgiana to Carandoota as martcha. The Ingeledgee know it as one oorah, the Yarrawangah as na imbo. To the south-west it finds its way to Charlotte Waters by barter. The tribe there chew it, and I have seen their peculiar flint weapons, the stone knife and elania given in exchange among the tribes near the pitury country and to the north. From Mount Merlin, on the head of the Mort to McKinley, west along the McKinley Ranges on the Gulf watershed to the Seymour River, a tributary of tho O'Shaugnessy, and on to the once mighty Kalkadoon tribe, are its limits. The Mygoodan, Goa and Mycoolins, to the north of this tribe, have never used it, and the Oon a murras, to the east, as far as Richmond Downs, are unacquainted with it. I attribute its sudden stoppage with the Kalkadoons to their fierce, bloodthirsty and warlike spirit. They have always been at war with the neighboring tribes, and in their own mode of warfare have no equals if I except the Murray River blacks of this colony. In times past they conquered large areas of country and kept it, driving the former owners southward, while they have also fought their way through several tribes to the Boo gool murras of the country back of Spear Creek, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. To this day their war challenges are to be seen painted on the flat rocks 40ft and 50ft from the ground, put there with their own blood and various colored ochres. This tribe, now about 3000 strong, own from 10,000 to 12,000 square miles of country and, although fast dying out, are still the worst cannibals on the Australian continent. They eat human flesh from the pure love of it, as their country has a bountiful supply of game and fish, and through this their name is well known to the other tribes for hundreds of miles round, who speak of them with awe and fear. They inhabit the mountainous districts at the heads of the rivers running north - a country most difficult to find them in owing to the numerous caves that they now frequent, and have done for years past, and in which the old traces of their feasts still remain. Yet with all their love for fighting and wandering they never allowed pitury to go to the north. It seems to have been guarded by them with the strictest secrecy, and they know it by the name of mur-ra.
MULLIGAN BLACKS. Returning to the pitury country, and still referring to the natives therein, I will speak about the Mulligan blacks. They are a very quiet, inoffensive people, hardly making an implement of any kind, as they get spears, boomerangs, shields, nullas, coolamons and other weapons in return for the narcotic. When not gathering this plant they plod along in their own simple way, making pitury bags, yards of native twine out of the native flax - vervane - or else twist their own hair, which they out off into long lengths of string. They use the opossum fur to make fringes, with which they cover the nakedness of their women. Their work is always done with great ingenuity and deftness, and a flint knife they greatly prize.
GUNYAHS. Their gunyahs are generally built on the sandhills and of three or four compartments, the furthest from the doorway being well into the side of the hill. They are covered first with spinifex, then sand, and only used in wet weather, being most difficult to perceive when riding along. A hole in the sand is their usual camp in summer.
COUNTRY. Passing over the stoney downs between the Georgiana and Mulligan rivers, the change in the feature of the country is very pronounced. Great quantities of salt and soda are seen on the large, shallow, greasy and inky clay-pans, and numerous mud springs abound ; some running strong; others trickling forth icy cold water; some sweet with soda, some salt, and others beautifully fresh. The whole basin of the Mulligan is teeming with water under the surface, in some places being obtained as shallow as 3ft.
MULLIGAN RIVER. This river courses through heavy spinifex sand ridges of a most dreary nature for miles, and then breaks into a number of branches over the flats, which streams run in a very confusing manner. These form into large waterholes below Kahlo station, come together, and the reformed river rushes hence through high stoney gorges. The spinifex, with its heavy head of nutritious seed, about 5ft high, waving in these ridges, appears like a huge wheat field in the distance.
TO THE PITURY COUNTRY. Leaving the Mulligan I journeyed due west, passing enormous clay-pans, the country being sandy but very rich. On some plains and black soil flats I met with the beautiful salt and cotton bush ; the latter in all its virginity growing to the extraordinary height of 6ft. and 7ft. The salt bush was of delicate luscious growth, and quite equal to that in Uivcrina. Here and there were some shallow lakes teeming with wild fowl, and suddenly, after passing through some gidyah I came to a large sandhill called Coon a burra. It lay to the left, while immediately under were the Gnull a wongah Springs, and a little further over the Micka dargo Springs. Mnngarno, the blacks favorite bulb, and wild yams grew in abundance. Still keeping my course I passed through a small belt of gidyah, and then found myself leaving the Mulligan waters. Ascending the first sandhill, which was steep, I found on mounting the crest that the country ahead was similar. I went down into a flat of gidyah with abundance of Mitchell and other grasses, then up another steep sandhill, and so on the whole day towards a dark smoke that I had seen rising for days.
PECULIARITY OF THE SANDHILLS. The peculiar lay of the sandhills, their course being north and south, impressed me very forcibly ; while they had the appearance of mighty waves of an ocean, so monotonous and regular were their formation. The monotony was only broken for the first 20 miles or so by finding a number of rats' castles. These were 4ft or 5ft high, and most ingeniously constructed. The sandhills, although covered with spinifex, had some excellent edible vines and the famed parakeila growing over them. This is a species of pigface that cattle can go four or five days on without a drink of water.
TREE WELLS. Afternoon, and no water, except in our water-bags. I asked my sable companion if he knew of any. He quickly raised his head and said, " Blenty Qua-tcha alonga waddy by un bye," and when nearly sun down he pointed to a clump of bloodwood on a flat. He was greatly surprised to find that I went up to a hollow tree and dipped my pint down, bringing it forth full of clear water. These hollows are made by the blacks, and when of a sufficient depth they puddle the bottom with clay. They often keep water by this means for months after the surface water has dried up. But to continue. On we went, cruising about for pitury, but my darkey kept saying, "Mar-tcha Mar-tcho," pointing to the smoke.
PITURY COUNTRY. I may state here the first pitury country, about 30 miles west of Coon er burra sand hill, is known as Gnool poop pa, and to reach even this the blacks have either to wait for the heavy wet seasons and tropical rains, or carry sufficient water in their kangaroo water-bags to last them several days. Their bags are tanned with bloodwood gum.
COOKING STATION. But to continue. The spinifex was getting heavier, and the vegetation changing, until at last, after 14 hours' continuous travelling, we arrived at the "cooking station," which was situated in a pretty gidyah flat, with abundance of grass and two or three fine clay-pans of water that would last three months.
LAKE AMAROO. A few straggling bushes of pitury are found to the west of Lake Amaroo ; these are the most easterly known. My darkey was, I found, a noted man in the pitury country, and had made visits for 15 years or more, knowing every bush growing. We saw signs of where the blacks had been feeding that day, but they had evidently gone collecting more pitury. There was a large bundle of "cooked" pitury stuck in the fork of a tree, about 8ft long and 3ft in diameter, being carefully laid and wrapped in an old tent. We camped here for the night. After hobbling our horses, I walked up to to the top of the sandhills to the west, and here I found the pitury growing, but nearly all the best of it had been plucked quite recently. Looking westward, I noticed the country had all been burnt. The spinifex here and there was sprouting, while to the west and south-west I could see other fires. These were fully 15 miles away, in the Walla Warra pitury country. The blacks from the "cooking station" were in this neighborhood ; while further out again, in the Cowa etha pitury country, there were other blacks from the north, and some from the Lower Mulligan. This latter-named country extends from Little Toko in the north, south-west across to the Field and on to the Hay River, both of which streams run into the Mulligan lower down. At the head of the former there is a fine waterhole named Alanajur.
PITURY. Pitury, even in its own country, is by no means plentiful. It grows in a scattered fashion, immediately on the crest of the sandhills, in patches of three, four, eight and ten small bushes, and in no single instance have I ever found it on the side or slopes of the sand ridges. The fine rich soil at the foot of the hills seems to hold out no inducement for it to leave its lofty perch, which fact alone convinces me that it never grew in any other country but this. Spinifex is to be found on the flats, but not so pitury. The sand ridges here seem to retain the moisture longer than those to be met with elsewhere.
SHRUB. The shrub grows about 8ft high, when from constant pulling and firing it dies, but the roots that run close to the surface throw out young shoots, which are plucked regularly every year. If the skin is touched with the fingers used in pulling the young shoots it produces a burning sensation like cayenne. A strong smell like vanilla comes from the plant while green, which it loses when cooked. The shoots range about 10in in length after a year's growth.
FIRING. Firing the country after plucking is done for two purposes. The first and most important is to scorch the pitury slightly, so that it will spring forth during the ensuing winter with renewed vigor, and then during the following wet season to give it a final impetus, in order that it is ready for pulling about a month or so after.
GAME. The second reason is to hunt the wallaby, billby and snakes out of their hiding places, so that they may become an easy prey to the natives and their dogs.
SIMILAR SHRUBS. I have often watched closely for anything approaching pitury in my travels, but never found any plant to resemble it so nearly as the young shoots of the sandalwood bush. My dusky companion informed me that "Baal nother white fellow been looks out pitury." He didn't like my going, and was very angry at my pulling a small bagfuL
COOKING PITURY. I cooked a portion of my pitury in the sand to have it fresh. All that is collected for use is treated in a similar manner before leaving the "cooking station," so that any seen or used by the blacks or whites is cooked, and not dried, as is often supposed. The cooking is done by carefully laying in handfuls, and in a regular manner, all the young shoots along a long shallow excavation in the sand, where a large fire has been burning. The ashes of this, together with hot sand, is then raked over the plant, and the time allowed for cooking is about ten minutes. After that it becomes light and ready for transport.
FLOWER. The flower and seed I found most difficult to procure, owing to yearly visitations of the natives, who pluck carefully every shoot, thereby not giving it a chance to flower, its general time for flowering being during winter. After a couple of days of pigweed, and a snake or two, we determined to return ; and while doing so luckily secured the seed and flower of four small bushes about two miles to the north-east of the "cooking station."
LANDMARKS. There were no landmarks by which a person can find this pitury country, every sandhill appearing the same.
ITS USE. Pitury snuff is an excellent remedy for headaches, while the sensation of chewing is most soothing, especially after heavy travelling or fatiguing work. There are no ill-effects afterwards, and, in fact, it gives the consumer a light, airy and satisfied feeling, stopping all craving for food.
COURAGE. It is never used by the blacks to give them, as they think, courage when going into a fight ; but it has just the opposite effect, and makes them sleepy. Only when they are without it any time do they become contrary. In winter they generally chew it before sleeping at night, as their covering is the canopy of heaven, their beds holes in the sand, with a fire close to the body. By this means they get a warm glow all over their bodies, and sleep contentedly till day light. I haved used it and known it used with great success in several cases of violent neuralgia, being placed in a new clay pipe and then smoked. Many men in the far west smoke and chew and also mix it with tobacco, always travelling with their small bag of pitury. I can safely say that after a hard day's ride of 60 or 70 miles on a sluggish horse I know nothing I would sooner have than a chew of pitury to allow me to sleep well and rise fresh and fit in the morning for the next day's work. It is far better than a sodden damper, a heavy meal, or a feather bed.
PREPARATION. Crushed small, put in the month and damped, rolled into a ball, placed on a piece of wood, and a small percentage of dogwood, mimosa and gidyah leaves ashes mixed with it. It is then placed in native flax and chewed. After that it is put behind the ear and the juice is swallowed.
ASTHMA. Two teaspoonsful of pitury to two cupsful of water simmered for 20 minutes, then boiled for five miuutes, is an excellent remedy for asthma.
BARTER. At a large camp on Bulla Bulla Waterhole, Hamilton River, I saw there some Paroo fish nets that I recognised by their peculiar make, also a long corroboree, double-barbed spear, that is only made on the Paroo from Eulo up. They came by way of Windorah or Cooper's Creek.
1901
- W.E. Roth, Food: its search, capture and preparation, Government Printer, Brisbane, 1901.
1904
- A.W. Howitt, The Native tribes of south-east Australia, 1904; Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1996.
- 30 November, Western Grazier, Wilcannia:
The natives indulged in an intoxicant, in the shape of a plant called pitcheree, and long journeys were made periodically to the localities where it grew in order to procure it. It was said to be a mild narcotic, and was used sometimes by the women as well as the men. It was a kind of scrub with stems similar to rye-grass. The natives chewed the stalks of this plant into a mass, and then mixed it with ashes of gum leaves making a sort of paste ball, which when kept in the mouth for some time had a highly simulating effect. White men who have smoked it when their tobacco has run out have declared that it has quite a soporific effect, and quickly sent them to sleep.
1911
- A.C. Rothera, The alkaloid of pituri obtained from Duboisia Hopwoodii, Biochemical Journal, 5, 1911, 193-206.
1926
- A report from Western Australia described the smoke from burning pituri leaves being used as an anaesthetic during surgical operations such as circumcision. Reference: D.A. Herbert, The poison plants of Western Australia, Bulletin No. 96, Government Printer, Perth, 1926. Revised edition.
1930
- 17 July, Western Mail, Perth:
(By L. Glauert, B A., F.G.S.) (Curator of the W.A. Museum.) Pituri. Referring to notes which appeared in this column a few weeks ago, Mr. E. Farr, of Dudinin, writes:-
"I can confirm Mr. Butler's remarks about pituri. I lived on the Lower Mulligan and Georgina rivers for several years, and I know that pituriwas much tr easured by the blacks. They used to trade it over the border into South Australia. The plug used to be done up in the same way as Mr. Butler described, and after chewing or sucking the plug for some time the blacks used to burn the green leaves of a species of acacia and mix the ashes with the old plug. After the black was tired of chewing it he would place the plug behind his ear and at times the gin would take it from its place and have a chew as well. When pituri was scarce I have known severe quarrels to occur among the tribes."
On this subject Dr. W. E. Roth has some interesting remarks in his ethnology of north-west central Queensland. He says on page 100:-
"Though not an article of food, a few notes on pituri will not be out of place here. If all is well pituri arrives in Boulia in the rough about the beginning of March. By 'in the rough' is meant the condition very much like half-green, half-yellow tea, with plenty of chips, in which it is conveyed in the dilly bags for barter, etc. The pituri shrub itself flowers about January. The supply for the Boulia district is obtained in the neighbourhood of Carlo, on the Upper Mulligan. As a matter of fact, the plant grows further east than that, though in scattered patches only - e.g., about 16 miles westward of Glenormiston head station; a patch of it is also said by the Mitakoodi aboriginals to be growing in one of the gullies at Cloncurry, on the Rifle Mountain. From Boulia and Marion Downs, from Herbert Downs and Roxburgh, messengers are sent direct to the Ulaolinya tribes at Carlo with spears and boomerangs, 'Government' and other blankets, nets, and especially red-coloured cloths, ribbons and handkerchiefs, to exchange and barter for large supplies of the drug. On its advent at Roxburgh, the pituri may travel partly up the Georgina and partly along the ranges to the Kalkadoon, who may supply the Mita kooda with it, but very little gets further eastward. From Boulia it is sent up the Bucke, and so through the Yellunga and Kalkadoon, again carried to the Mita kooda, or may be forwarded on to Warenda and Tooleybuck. Marion Downs sends it via Springvale to the Middle Diamantina, whence it may go up as far as Elderslie and Winton, very little, if any, ever reaching the Thomson River. Arrived at its destination, the pituri is prepared for use as follows:-
After roasting in the ashes the pituri chips be come pliable, so as to be easily bent, and are then wetted with water, if in large quantity, or with the mouth, if in small, and teased up with the fingers so as to remove all the bigger pieces. Some leaves of a certain species of wattle (Pitta Pitta poo-ka-ti-ka) or of gidyea, when the former is not obtainable, are next treated over the fire, and then burnt, the ashes being retained. Thc pituri in its moist state is now mixed with these ashes on some smooth surface, a pituri stove, and worked into small rolls with the fingers. The rolls are about 2½ inches long and five-eighths of an inch in diameter, and the quids are now ready for chewing.
Among the aboriginals themselves everywhere as great a craving appears to exist for pituri as for alcohol among Europeans, a fact which is put to economic use by drovers, station managers and others. Mr. Reardon, the manager of Carlo, tells me that when on the Mulligan tbe supply of tobacco runs out the aboriginals will smoke pituri in their pipes. Pituri is ceitainly never used in any of these districts for contaminating the water holes with the object of druggingthe birds and animals drinking therein.
Pituri has been known to the whole settlers for many years. As far back as 1861 Wills refers to it in his diary under the date of May 7. "The blacks," he states, "also gave us some stuff they called bedgery, or pedgery. It has a highly in- toxicating effect when chewed even in small quantities."
Dd. Bancroft, of Brisbane, read a paper on pituri in March, 1872, when he described the effects of an infusion of the
plant:- (1) Period of preliminary excitement from apparent loss of inhibitory power of the cerebrum, attended with rapid respiration; in cats and dogs, with vomiting and profuse secretion of saliva. (2) Irregular muscular action, followed
by general convulsions. (3) Paralysis of respiratory function of medulla. (4) Death: or (5) Sighing inspirations at long intervals. (6) Rapid respiration and returning consciousness. (7) Normal respiration and general torpidity, not unattended with danger to life. The poison is an alkaloid and seems to resemble atropine in its effects.
1933
- H. Johnston and B. Cleland, The history of the Aboriginal narcotic, pituri, Oceania, 4(2 & 3), 1933-34, 201–289.
- 2 July, The Northern Herald, Cairns: Report on 2 year old child poisoned to death by chewing on the leaves of the corkwood tree.
1935
- C.S. Hicksand H. Le Messurier, Preliminary observations on the chemistry and pharmacology of the alkaloids of D. Hopwoodii, Australian Journal of Experiments, Biology and Medical Science, 1935, 175–178.
1937
- G. Aiston, The Aboriginal narcotic pitcheri, Oceania, 8, 1937, 372–377.
1939
- A.H. Mattingly, Pitcheri. Wildlife, 1, 1939, 26-.
1942
- 24 August, Daily Mercury, Mackay:
Pituri Tree Prized by Aborigines. Almost all native races have some forms of intoxicating drink and narcotic. Queensland's aborigines in their wild state had both an intoxicant and a narcotic in the one source. This was the piturl tree. Known botanically as one of the Duboisia family, this shrub, pituri, is a species peculiar to Australia. It is prized even today by the aborigines who know Its properties. They are extremely potent. Western Queensland aborigines and those of Central Australia powdered the piturl leaves and mixed them with finely broken twigs. This mixture they chewed and showed evident signs of pleasure over the process. In the end it seemed to induce a dreamy sort of condition. Only the most expert could concoct this mixture, for the powder was so fine that it acted as an intense irritant if carelessly handled, and induced painful fits of sneezing. Piturl was so valuable in aboriginal eyes that the blacks would travel enormous distances to obtain it. This course was all the more necessary as this variety of Duboisia is very widely distributed, and many hundreds of miles separated numbers of native tribes from the drug plant. Consequently, even to this day pituri is an inestimable item in tribal barter. In recent years regular barter was maintained between the tribes of the Gulf of Carpentaria and those in the far Central-West about Boulia. Spears fashioned by the Gulf men were regarded highly by more southern tribes, but in their possession of the pituri men of the Boulia district had something the Carpentaria blacks equally esteemed. So spears were exchanged for pituri over those many hundreds of intervening miles.
An old manuscript tells of a more astonishing case of barter for pituri. It occurred in the 1860s when a Mr. Renklater, who had a property on the border of South Australia and Victoria, noticed his station blacks chewing these leaves, and on inquiry found that they had been brought from somewhere in the northern districts of New South Wales, then newly settled. It had been exchanged for some of the elaborate shields, with incised designs, for which the Murray River blacks were famous in the aboriginal world. That barter conducted over more than a thousand miles is an illustration of the honesty of the primitive blacks, for the two commodities must have passed through the country of dozens of tribes of strange blacks. It is also an illustration of the pulling power of pituri! The method of preparing the pituri is of interest. The tops and leaves are gathered in August, when the plant is usually in blossom. They are hung until they are thoroughly dry. They are then packed in netted bags, and sometimes in skins, for transport to the far distant customers who so eagerly await their pituri. Meantime the harvesting tribe settles down to the enjoyment of the precious intoxicant or narcotic, according to the fashion of preparing the pituri. Holes are bored in the stem and water is inserted. When drunk next morning it Is so potent that it would almost stun a white man, and even the blacks become frenziedly intoxicated. Thus it was a popular prelude to tribal combat. Extra large quantities of the bark were used to poison emus, and even smaller quantities thrown into a waterhole would bring eels wriggling to the surface, to be caught easily. The Duboisia has been shown to contain such drugs as atropine, hyoscyamine, and other mydriatic alkaloids.
1944
- 4 March, The Herald, Melbourne:
Native lore may shed light on drug output. Perth. Native lore may lead to the production of valuable and urgently needed drugs front Western Australia's indigenous plants. The uses to which aborigines put plants as remedies for their ills will be one of the angles from which the drug panel will investigate various native plants. Other approaches will be through the relationship of these plants with other drug plants in various parts of the world. The Government Botanist M.C. Gardner pointed out that every country had plants of economic value, and often a lead to their commercial exploitation had been given by the uses to which they had been put by local inhabitants. There were several known in his State. The principal one was the pituri. which was used by the natives as a narcotic and an anaesthetic. This plant contained nicotine. which was scarce today. A sister species in Eastern Australia provided hyoseyamine. and it was possible this drug might be discovered in Western Australia. Other alkaloids might be expected from the native thorn apple in the north-west, An acute shortage of insecticides called for attention to various poisons of the Kimberleys region, especially trees which yielded rotenone - which was a valuable Insecticide. There were other plants- which the natives used medicinally, and one shrub was said to provide a certain cure for dysentery and cholera.
- 23 December, The Herald, Melbourne:
A Narcotic Used By The Aborigines. Oddly enough the addiction to drugs and narcotic's is not a monopoly of civilised man, but appears to occur among primitive peoples in most parts of the world, including the Australian aborigines. It is well known that the aborigines soon learn to use tobacco and develop a great craving for it. Smoking pipes were in existence to Arnhem Land when Matthew Flinders reached that area in 1802 and it is probable that tobacco was first introduced to these people from Indonesia long before that time. The aborigines in other parts of Australia, however, had developed a narcotic of their own known as Pituri, a shrub Duboisia Hopwoodii in parts of Western Queensland. Pituri belongs to the same natural order as the tobacco plant (the Solanaceae), but it is a strange fact that although the aborigines made use of Pituri, which contains powerful narcotic properties, they did not exploit the native tobacco plant (Nicotians suaveolens), which also grows abundantly in Australia. Pituri, which although abundant in Western Queensland, especially to the Upper Mulligan River, is local in distribution, and in early days was harvested by the aborigines of that area and traded for hundreds of miles over well-established routes. It was prepared by an elaborate process of maceration and heating into quids for chewing. Dr. W.E. Roth recorded that pituri was used by the natives not so much for exciting their courage as to "produce a voluptuous dreamy sensation."
1946
- Tarlon Rayment, The valued pituri, Walkabout, 13, 1946, 42-.
1951
- W. Bottomley and D.F. White, The chemistry of West Australian plants. IV. Duboisia Hopwoodii, Australian Journal of Scientific Research, 4, 1951, 107-111.
1952
- C. Barnard, The Duboisias of Australia, Economic Botany, 6, 1952, 3-17.
1963
- C.S. Hicks, Climatic adaptation and drug habituation of the Central Australian Aborigine, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 7, 1963, 39-57.
1971
- G.S. Kennedy, Hyoscyamine in Duboisia hopwoodii, Phytochemistry, 1971.
1974
- E.M. Trauter, I. Schmeltz and M. Sahlins, Stone Age Economics, 1974.
- P. Latz, Central Australian species of Nicotiana: wild tobacco and pituri, Australian Plants of the Centre, 1974, 280-283.
1979
- N. Peterson, Aboriginal uses of Australian Solanaceae, in J.G. Hawkes, R.N. Lester and A.D. Skelding (editors), The Biology of Taxonomy of the Solanaceae, Linnean Society Symposium Series Number 7, Published for the Linnean Society by Academic Press, London, 1979, 171-188. ]
1982
- O. Luanratana et al., Alkaloids of D. hopwoodii, Phytochemistry, 1982.
1983
- P.L. Watson, This Precious Foliage: A study of the Aboriginal Psycho-active Drug Pituri, 1983.
- P.L. Watson, O. Luanratana and W.J. Griffin, The ethnopharmacology of pituri, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 8(3), September 1983, 303-311.
1985
-W.J. Griffin, Duboisias of Australia, Pharmacy International, 1985, 305-308.
1988
- A. Barr, J. Chapman, N. Smith and M. Beveridge, Traditional bush medicines: an Aboriginal pharmacopoeia, Greenhouse Publications, Sydney, 1988.
1989
E. Stack, Aboriginal Pharmacopeia, Northern Territory Library Service, Darwin, 1989.
1991
- A. Cribb, J. Cribb and J. Pearn, Pituri, Plants and Physic, in J. Pearn and L. Powell (editors), The Bancroft Tradition, Amphion Press, Brisbane, 1991.
2006
P. Foley, Duboisia myoporoides: The Medical Career of a Native Australian Plant, Historical Records of Australian Science, 17, 2006, 31-39.
2010
- A. Ratsch, K.J. Steadman, and F. Bogossian, The pituri story: a review of the historical literature surrounding traditional Australian Aboriginal use of nicotine in Central Australia, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 6(26), 2010. DOI: 10.1186/1746-4269-6-26. Open Access.
2011
- R.N. Westhorpe and C. Ball, Pituri and other Aboriginal medicines, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, 39(1), January 2011.
2012
- P. French, E. James and N. Walsh, Analysis of genetic variation in a disjunct, narcotic producing, population of Duboisia hopwoodii (F. Muell.), Muelleria, 30(1), 2012, 65–71.
2023
- Wikipedia, Dubiosia hopwoodii, accessed 16 March 2023.
-----, Pituri, accessed 16 March 2023.
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Last updated: 22 March 2023
Michael Organ
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