wakel

Updated: May 20, 2025

The WAKEL delights in rocky, dry places, near salt water; they are very sluggish, and easily caught by the women, who seize them behind the head and wring their necks. They are described to have been seen 9 or 10 feet long. My specimen, a young male, was exactly 5 feet long. The scales of this species are firmly fixed to the skin, in plates all over the back and belly.

Edward John Eyre - Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Complete

I requested them to let me taste the specimen from which the drawing was made; but they devoured every atom themselves, pretending they did not understand me. The WAKEL differs from the NORN in its habits; although both ascend trees in pursuit of small birds and the young of the opossums.

Edward John Eyre - Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Complete

I have endeavoured to represent it as it generally sleeps or lies in wait for its prey, small birds, frogs, lizards, etc. It delights in swamps and marshes. Killed October, 1844. PYTHON. Native name WAKEL or WA-A-KEL. This snake is considered by the natives a great delicacy, and by their account resembles mutton in flavour, being also remarkably fat.

Edward John Eyre - Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Complete