The Holly chieftain., 1899-06-02
THE OCTOPUS AS FOOD.
t !. Considered Quite n Deiicacy By
the Islanders of the
Pacific.


In few things does man show his
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 a wider
range of gastronomic attainment than
is boasted by any other nation in the
world. In Georgia there are clay eat
ers. In the island of Mindanao we have
man caters. 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 fms
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 queerest appetite
is in our Hawaiian possessions, where
poi and devil fish are the delicacies that
can lure the dusky and palpitating per-
sons of those latitudes from home and
mother.
Poi is well known now. 1t has been
described often. though varyingly.
Some writers of delicate sensibilities
have not mentioned that which grosser
writers have described most lovingly;
the process of chewing which the root
undcrgoes before it is considered fit for
poi.
Emphatically, poi is something that
is edible only if you do not know how
it has been made.
However, poi is not as curious as devil
fish. To the unpreiudiced observer
there is nothing dangerously tempting
in devil fish. The face of the devil
fish is not his fortune. 1t is fiat face
with a beal< in the middle and two
staring, fat fiend's goggles that make
the little waves break when he looks
at them. This pleasing countenance is
made fast from behind to n gray, ghost
ly bag like the bloated body of spider.
Eight arms complete the engaging tout
ensemble.
Still, ugly as he is, even the devil fish
has friends, though they are only de-
signing friends, who like him better
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 gem
tie and unindustrious colored fisherman
lets his boat float slowly over the coral
reefs till he sees the waving tentacles
Dr. the big eyes of one of the creatures.
Then he gently sticks a long pole with
| sharp hook at the end of it into the
water and lowers it till it is in front of
the devil fish's submarine villa. Then
the devil fish gets angry. being of
eholeric and infirm temper always, and
he grabs the stick. The hook grabs the
1evil 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 fish for the octopus
with hook which is made of a straight
piece of wood about five or six inches
tong. On the upper side is spliced
piece of mother of pearl. and below is
piece of lead. Two short prongs of
brass are fastened to the other end of
he stick. Octopus, who is as imuplsive
as he is chronically belligerent and hum
CRY, darts at this contrivance as soon
as he sees it play in the water. and the
end is the fish market and a poi-lined
grave in the dark interior of a Hawaiian
stomach.
The devil fish that are caught in Ha-
waiian waters do not attain the enor-
nous size that is reached by the spe-
,ies in other seas, but fairly large ones
are caught every little while, and the
fishermen don't like to tackle 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, first cous-
ins to each other, both have pleasant
habit of ejecting an inky fluid-sepia-
from their bag-bodies when they are
alarmed or attacked. This fluid is so
thick and strongly tinted that the
water becomes absolutely opaque for
many yards around the spot, and. COW
erred by his homemade darkness. the
devil fish escapes his enemies.-N. Y.
Press.