IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. (By James Druinmond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) (All Rights Reserved.) (For The Post.)

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 129, 27 November 1909, Page 13

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. (By James Druinmond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) (All Rights Reserved.) (For The Post.)

ISLAND FISHES AND FISHERS. Major J. T. Large, who recently described fishing methods at Aitutaki, notably the practice of catching sharks, has sent an account of the natives' operations at Mangaia, another member of the Cook Group. He says that they always make the most of their opportunities in this respect. Whenever the sea is not too rough, hardy and skilful fishers may be seen watching for a chance to launch their small outrigger canoes through the surf into the deep blue ocean beyond. There they spend hours tossing about, frequently with very inadequate results. They display surprising patience. In those waters, for instance, there is a timid fish of the mackerel family, called tho koperu. To induce it to approach and take the baits, they feed it with mashed coconut every evening when they can reach the fishing ground where it is found. The most attractive fishing expedition, both to those who take part in them, and to spectators on the shore, is the "rama maroro," or "catching flying." This takes place by torchlight on moonless nights. The torches are made of dried coconut fronds tied together. The fish are attracted by the flare, and men with scoop-nets fixed at the end of poles ladle them into the canoes. In the proper season, which is the early summer, twenty, thirty, or more canoes, filled with men and boys, take part in the pastime. The canoes ? lighted by flaring torches, move in procession to and fro along the reef, just outside of the break of the surf, and make a lively and picturesque scene. Another brilliant illumination is often seen on fine nights all the year round, when the natives, mostly women and children, catch fish on the reef. The most favourable time for this is when the level platform of rock is just awash, and the fish can come in over the crown of the xeef. They are dazed by the light from the torches and remain stationary, and knives and spears are used to despatch them. This is also the time for catching the crayfish, which is called | koura in the Cook Islands as well as in New Zealand. The foot is placed firmly on top of the -crayfish's back, aud the animal is pressed down on to the rock. It can then be taken by the hand and transferred to a basket, after the big nippers have been wrenched off. When the sea is very smooth and the* tide is low, natives may be seen spearing fisp on the extreme outer edge of the reef. The spearsman puts his head into a small box with a glass bottom, through which he peers, undisturbed by the surge on the surface, at any fish that come within reach, and he transfixes them with a skilful thrust. One of the best fish caught by rod and line in the small inlets and channels that pierce the reef is the nanue, a dark-coloured fish, about the same shape and size as- a small snapper. The big holes and pools on tho reef are full or fish of many kinds, shapes, and colours. Few of them, however, take the bait. Most of them live by suction on the difierent vegetable and animal growth that adhere to the coral reefs. Some of the latter creatures are striped, some spotted, and somo have strange filamentary appendages. There is seen there the harmless and inactive sea-slug, Notothuria, both the black and the red being present, the latter about twelve inches long, and the former about thirty inches. It is the French "beche de mer," and Polynesians in all those seas know it as the "rori." Some species of this animal, after being first "parboiled and then dried, were once a valuable article of commerce, as they were purchased in large quantities for iood Chinese, who called it "tripang." Tho trade, however, has graduj ally fallen away, and has now almost ceased. At Mangaia every Saturday, throughout the whole year, when the tide is low, most of the inhabitants, men, women, and children, betake themselves to the reef, which, is an inexhaustible source of supply of salt-water food, and cull what they can find for the "kinaki," or relish, for the midday meal on Sunday. Armed with small •nets, spears, knives, and bows and arrows, they make a clean sweep of the level reef. The bow and arrow are most in use, especially in capturing a small but plentiful Gsh which is induced to remain, stationary Iby a loud noise caused by slapping! and then the missile is sent home. Women' often carry old axes or hammers, with which they extract "ungakoa," an elongated species of crustacean whose shells are embedded in the coral rock and require a good deal of hammering 'before they are dislodged. The circular mouth of these shells, which are as sharp as a razor, will Souge a piece out of a man's foot, lost of the natives therefore wear aubark sandals, "tamaka," when they are walking along the reef. When they return home from these Saturday excursions their baskets often contain a miscellaneous assortment of small fish, eea eels, squids, sea-eggs, perhaps a stray crayfish or a few clams, and some edible seaweed to crown the whole. Whatever food they obtain from the sea, and -whether it is eaten cdoked or ra>w, they nearly always flavour it with their old-time sauce, "tai," which is made simply by mixing sea- water with grated coconut, a relish which Major Large says cannot be improved upon. All the lakes and streams in the Cook Islands are small, and they do not yield many fresh-water articles of food. These consist, indeed, only of eels; the old familiar "bully-head" of New Zealand (known in the islands, as here, as "kokopu"), 6mall crayfish, and shrimps; all are favourite foods except the eels, which the natives do not care for. There is a strange myth which associates the eel with the coconut tree. In remote days there lived at Tamarua a beautiful Mangaian maiden named Ina. She Jrad as a lover the god of fresh water eek, who wooed her in the form of a handsome youth. They had to part, and he said that he would bestow upon her. as a parting gift, a priceless boon. On the following day a great flood would reach the threshold of her dwelling. He would appear in his proper form as a big eel, and would place ihis head on her doorstep. She would strike off his head with her axe, bury the head near tho doorstep, and await the result. The -big eel came with the flood, and Ina carried out her instructions. After a time a green plant came forth from the place where the head had Deen buried. It grew into a tall tree, and, to the delight of the people, bore coconuts, the most valuable natural product of those sunny isles. A similar myth accounting for the I origin of the tree is believed by the people of Tahiti and other groups of island in the South Pacific.

LACK OF ENERGY. If you lack energy, don't relish your food, feel dull and constipated, all you need is a do&e of Chamberlain's 1 ablets. - They,, will make you feel like a new man, and give you a healthy appetite. They will do you more good than a 5s bottle of tonic— Adv_t. -