The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-09-05

l. OlleI my IneOIJ III duulIlOH 10 the
different speculations INDUCED in by
many as to how or why cholera has
spread so rapidly among the native
population. L take as a starting point
that the Cinnamon who died at the
quarantine station died OF cholera.
If the practice of former times in re-
gard to the burial of the bodies of
quarantined persons was carried out
in their cases, that is the bodies were
buried without collins, those bodies at
once became an attraction for all the
crabs and sand eels within a radius of
half a mile or more. 1t was well
known to the ancient Hawaiians that
certain species of crabs are very fond
of decaying animal matter, more es-
pecially of decaying human flesh. 1t
is a proverbial saying in Hawaiian
in regard to the Alamihi, a small
black or brownish crab, and the Ohiki,
of lighter shade of brown, "Alamihi
al kupapau" or "Ohiki al kupapau"-
corpse-eating Alamihi or Ohiki-and
for this reason the ancient natives al
ways, if possible, buried their dead far
inland, not only to prevent the desc
Grafton of the bodies of their loved
ones but also to prevent the pollution
of a favorite article of diet, and one,
too, that figures as quite an item in
the family provisions of those living
near their habitats. Crabs of these
two varieties in favorable localities
have been met with at night as far
inland as half a mile from the sea
shore rambling around in quest of any
decaying matter. L have seen them
running at night on the lower part of
Liliha street.
The proper mode of preparing these
crabs for the table, according to ma
tive custom, is to take the back off
with the entrails OF the animal, break
off all the claws, add to the backs con-
tanning the entrails, pounded or ground
fine, mix with a little water and
strain what you might call the crab
Juice on to the cleaned bodies of the
little animals. The resultant sauce is
one of the finest tasting have ever
ate, not excepting even the very finest |
OF foreign-made sauces it has been my
fortune to have known. Can one |
wonder that the Hawaiians with their |
limited opportunities should cling to |
this almost as tenaciouly as to poi? |
But note the ingredients of the sauce:
Entrails and all in the back of the |
crab together with the claws and any |
other easily detachable bony parts. |
AS L understand, not being on this |
island at the outbreak of the cpl
demIc, two women-Kuanalewa, a |
well-known dealer at the fishmarket |
in these crabs, being one-went crab
bling, gathering limu, mudfishes and
such like articles of Hawaiian diet |
OLE ri 70
regulated luau. a luau was held at |
Iwilei. No doubt these crabs and
limu figured at the furnishing of the
table. Following an almost in
variable native habit the fishers
and most likely those of the
house made their meal with
poi off some of the very same crabs
and limu and so ate of them before
the feast. Now, those crabs, at the
previous high tide, perhaps an hour or
two before, had themselves been feast
ing on the bodies of those cholera pa
tients buried on the sandspit, imme-
diate!y makai or to the seward of the
residence of those women. Here was
direct, undiluted contagion.
/ have no means of knowing how
many of the cases at Iwilei partook of
crabs, limu or mud-fishes, but had
the authorities, lay or medical, been
aware of this popularity of certain
crabs, and of the fondnesS of the ma
tives for them, for Iimu, etc., and
had inquired as to what had
been eaten since the deaths on quar-
antine ground, i do not fear to assert
it would have been found that some or
all of the above articles CT diet had
been eaten raw.
Neither limu nor mudfish necessar-
lily prey on dead bodies, but the crabs,
after their ghoulish feasts, would be
very apt to crawl on the limu, thus
communicating it, as well as injecting
the water. Mudfishes both eat limu
and swallow water and any little kind
Of foreign matter floating therein.
In the case of the man who escaped
from Iwilei and died in the house ON
the banks of the Nuuanu stream;
whether the privy where his eXcre-
ment was emptied stood over the
stream or not, quilts, very generally
used by natives and frequently costing
ten, twenty to twenty-five dollars, or
even blankets and sheets, getting
soiled with his excreta, would |
be invariably, according to native
practice where a stream is handy,
taken into a stream and washed in
stead of burning them up, even if told
Of the danger; of which they would be
skeptical. That would infect the
stream downward toward the mud
iats below and around the wash
houses. a material portion of the
Incl, or wherewithal to eat with poi,
taking the place of meat, for the ma
tives living in the districts bordering
on the stream and mud flats, such as
Kapuukolo, LeleO, Aala,
and even around Palama, are those
same alamihi, oOpu, kauleloa, COM
non oOpu (mudfishes), shrimps and
ne different linus, all obtainable
either in the stream or the mud flats.
What are the results? Most of the
Eases developed within the last few
lays have been among those inhabit-
ng the localities mentioned. The
ew cases that appeared outside, last
week, am sure can be proved to have
either visited there and eaten, or had