Daily camera., 1899-07-12
fne DAlkYl sAaeRA
EAT THE DEVIL FISH
Havsiians Consider It 4 Toothsoms
Article of Diet
II - Bahama and BssAVAAs -
Uwly Sea Monster Ia Much
Sought for ~
FtskeFneA

In few things does man snO~ uA
perennial curiosity more than in his
patient and often enthusiastic investi-
cations into the question OF eating
There hardly is anything in the animal
vegetable and mineral Kingdoms which
some human being has not tried to eat
at some time or another.
Now that we have taken up the white
mans burden, the United States prob
ably has within its possessions wider
range of gastronomic attainment than
is boosted by any other nation in the
world. In Georgia there are clay eat
ers. In the island of Mindanao we have
man eaters. In Alaska they have been
eating dog with abandon and loud cries
Of More" Some of our Indian wards
dote on dried and mashed grasshoppers
Our Chinese squatters eat sharks fins
and birds nests. But. aside from the
diet of roast and boiled man. which is
more an eccentricity than studied ac-
QUESTION of taste. the gueerest appetite
| is in our Hawaiian possessions, where
poi and devil fish are the delicacies that
can lure the dusky and FACILITATING per
sons of those latitudes from home and
mother. ..
Poi is well known now. II has been
described often, though Aryingly.
Some writers of delicate sensibilities
| have not mentioned that which grosser
writers have described most lovingly;
the process of chewing which the root
undergoes before il is considered fit for
poi.
Emphatically, poi is something that
is edible only if you do not know how
il has been made.
However, poi is not as curiou. as devil
fish, To the unprejudiced observer
there is nothing dangerously tempting
in a devil fish. The face of the devil
| fish is not his fortune. 1t is a fiat face
with a heak in the middle ancftt~o
staring. fiat fiend's goggles that make
the little waves break when he looks
al them. This pleasing countenance is
made fast from behind 10 gray, ghost
ly bag like the bloated body of aspider.
Eight arms complete the engaging Tout
ensemble.
Still. ugly as he is. even the devil hsh
has friends, though they are only de-
when he is inside OF them than other
wise. To get him into this likeable con-
dition there are various methods. In
the Bahamas and in Bermuda the gen
tie and unindustrious colored fisherman
let's his boat float slowly over the coral
| reefs till he sees the waving tentacles
or the big eyes of one of the creatures
Then he gently sticks long pole with
o sharp hook at the end of il into the
water and lowers il till il is in front OF
the devil fish's submarine villa. Then
the devil fish gets angry, being Of
choleric and infirm temper always, and
he grabs the stick. The hook g{abs the
devil fish. and he is hauled into the boat.
where he usually tries to eat the darky.
Failing in this. he gives way to lively
grief. and presses his large, expressive
face to the bottom of the boat, arrang
ing his eight arms in graceful circle
all around his body till he looks like
tentacled Niobe. --
In HAWAII they Ash for the octopus
with hook which is made Of a straight
piece of wood about five or six inches
long. On the upper side is spliced
piece of mother Of pearl. and below is
piece of lead. Two short prongs Of
bras. are fastened to the other end OF
the stick. Octopus, who is AS imuplsive
as he is chronically belligerent and hun.
cry, darts at this contrivance as soon
rs he sees it play in the water, and the
end is the fish market and a poi-hned
grave in the dark interior Of q Hawaiian
stomach.
The devil fish that are caught in Ha-
waiian winters do not attain the snor-
nous sise that 10 reached by the spe-
cies in other seas. but fairly large ones
are caught every little while and the
fishermen don't like to tackle a big one
In the harbor of Honolulu any more
than they do in other waters.
In China the plucky fishermen Jump
overheard when they catch an octopus
In their nets. In Bermuda waters no
darky can be persuaded to take the col
lector out to hunt big devil fish. They
will go after the little fellows, but they
are in deadly fear of any that are above
the average in size.
The octopus and the squid. hrst cous-
ins 70 each other. both have . pleasant
habit of ejecting an inky fuid-seps-
from their bag bodies when they are
alarmed or attacked. This fluid is 80
thick and strongly timed that the
water becomes absolutely opaque for
many yards around the spot, and, COW
cred by his homemade darkness, the
devil fish escapes his enemies.-N. Y.
prNss