The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-11-27
A SAMOAN nHIcAcY.
The PaloIO, a Queer T.ittIc Worm That
Visits the Island Once Year.

I
Visits the Island. Once Year.
The palolo is probably the most Curl
ous table delicacy in the world. 1t is
worm about as thick as strand of yarn
and from five to eight inches long. 1t
is caught once a year near the Samoan
islands and is eaten by the native
Samolns. Very early in the morning
of the first day of the last quarter of
the November moon hundreds of small
boats full of Samoans put out from
the shore near Apia to the coral reefs.
Every boat is provided with fine nets
stretched between bent sticks and at
tached to a short handle. At the reefs
little skirmisbinc for the best places
many collisions, good bit of Samoan
cursing, ami any amount of singing
and shouting prccede the fishing. Then
an occasional shout of "Pa!olo! palolor'
is heard as someone scoops in a netful
of worms. Suddenly the water begins
to crawl. 1t seems to be boiling with
tiny water snakes. The natives throw
down their paddles and grasp their
nets. Those who have no nets snatch
up baskets, sieyes, anything that will
hold worms and not water, and begin
to scoop in the palolos. They work
with tremendous energy, for they real
ize that the minute the sun rises the
palolos will be OF again for another
year. Buckets, baskets, bowls and
platters are filled with the tiny squirm-
ing worms, vet the natives work on
with will which white people have
rarely given them the ere lit for posses
sing. The sun rises, and all is over.
The palolos are gone, no one knows
where, and the Samoans put back to
shore with their catch.
In sea water the palo,os can be kept
alive for hours. Without water they
die in a few minutes. Roasted palolos
are of dark brown color Boiled pal0los
and raw palolos are blue, brown, light
yellow or green. Many natives eat
them raw; others roast or boil them.
The time of year at which the worms
appear near Samoa and are caught is
probably their spawning season, as
microscopic examination shows most
of them to be full of the tiniest eggs.
Eggs and worms together taste sonle-
thing like strong sea fish. Fondness.of
them as "A table delicacy is usually an
acquired taste. This is not particularly
strange, as severa. features of their APP
pearance are apt to suggest very dis
agreeable ideas to the civilized imagi-
nation. In the first place, the palelo's
body is fashioned pretty much after
the plan of the tapeworm. 1t consists
of an indefinite number of sections.
Each section has underneath two
''crawlers' or feet and on top a black
dot. On the head are two little horns
and three feelers, not unlike tiny warts
in appearance. The upper lip is COM
paratively rough and hard. Like the
tapeworm the palolo is not killed by
being taken apart. The removal of
several sections of palolo is followed
by shrinking together of the rest of
the body till the worm looks like thin
thread. When the palolo breaks itself
in two, as often happens, by its quick,
snake-like movements through the
water, the same result follows. This
phenomenon has given color to the
delusion that the palolo is kind of
self-dissolving creature, and that the
almost instantaneous disappearance of
them from the Samoan waters at sun
rise on the day of the annual catch
is the result of the general self-dissolu-
ton OF the worms. In fact, only those
sections removed from the head and
the sections next to the head of the
palolo die. After short time other
sections grow out of the section next
to the head. and the palolo is as good
as new. The female palolo does not
differ from the male palolo in appear
ance. and breaks herself up in the
same way and with the same results.
The mystery of the palolo's sudden ap-
pearauce near Samoa fOr few hours
annually and its magical disappearance
at sunrise are unexplained. Why the
palolos come to be caught by the dusky
Samoans only at the beginning of the
last quarter of the November moon,
where they come from, where they &c
to, how they breed and where they live
ali this is something that nobody
knoWs.-N. T. SAN.