The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-04

for so brief a space and In such mar Vellous fashion,
 Now 1t is quite safe to predicate of the Samoan that he does not get up in the middle of the night and go fishing for these worms solely because they are an obscure freak of natural history. There must be some reason more solid than that to put himself to so much trouble. The reason is a very valid one Pablo smacks most pleasantly on his palate. One day in the year he eats all the pablo he can get, and the re- maining days when he cannot get palo- To to eat he thinks of all the pablo he has eaten in annual gorges and looks ahead to the eating of more pablo. To the white mans palate it has not the same charm. In fact great many people would on general principles rather be excused when it comes to eat ing worms of any sort. Still, if one schools the mind by a more or less se- were course of reasoning to recognize that any article of food which Is highly regarded by whole races of men must be at least fair eating, 1t may be possi- ble to lay aside the mass of preiudices and eat the worms. They are disap- pointment as an article of food for white people; they are neither partic- ularly good nor picturesquely bad. Probably the disappointment comes from seeing how highly the savage epi- cures regard the rare food. The best way of eating pablo is raw. The is- flanders prefer it that way best and cook only that which they are unable to find room for when it is freshly caught. It must be put on to cook immediately or it will spoil before sunrise. Faten by handfuls just fresh from the sea the pablo has no very distinct flavor be- yond that of the salt water; 1t leaves an after taste in the mouth faintly remi- niscent of scallops. When there is any of the pablo left over to be cooked it is steamed in leaves in the common pit over and eaten cold. Thus prepared it has somewhat the appearance of spin ach and tastes so strongly of sea salt that any other flavor which may apper- tain to it is completely disguised, The Samoans themselves say that it is not so good when cooked and that they i would not eat it thus prepared except for the fact that it will be whole year before they can have it again.
 No explanation has ever accounted for the mysterious periodicity of this worm, which is so astonshingly accu- rate in the keeping of it's engagements with humankind It is known that other worms of the same general class undergo their transformations under the protection of the coral; therefore it is assumed that the pablo lives in some very deep coral. They evidently come to the surface to spawn, for if few of the worms are placed in a glass they soon cloud the water with eggs so fine as to be distinguished only under a mi croscope. Other sea worms live in CO., ral and come to the surface to spawn, but the palolo has characteristics which the other worms lack It is the only inhabtant of the sea which comes within knowledge of mankind for so brief a period and yet with such un- failing accuracy. Among the unsolved mysteries of life must be chased the power which enables these scarcely or ganiZed worms to keep careful reckon- ing of the months, to intercalate with unfailing regularity so as to keep time by moons, yet not get out of harmony with the suns year, to rise to the sur face all together and in what Is practi- cally the same moment of time to re- main within view for an hour and then to go to parts unknown.-New York Sun.