The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-21

me in this pool. / had become TAMIL
lar with the bright colors and ode
shapes of these denizens of the tropica
sea, but never before had | seen fish
exactly like these, which seemed tC
have a monopoly of this basin, and
seldom saw them elsewhere in the
same waters and then only singly and
not in schools as they were mere. The
pool was about sixty feet in diameter
and roughly circular in its outline OF
just how many of these fish were In II
] should hesitate to express an opinion
but there were at least half dozen
distinct schools, and in each school
We're many individuals. They were
shaped like the mackerel, almost uni
formly less than a foot in length, in
color brilliant violet, with a quarter
shade down the backbone and on the
fins and tail, which were dull drab;
gill covers, bright scarlet, the same col
or appearing on the rays of the fine and
in a series of smoothly circular spots
along the medan line of each side
graded from one as large as cent just
behind the gills to a mere pin head at
the tail.
The stir on the reef and the errand of
the children on the shore had interested
Talolo He did not know what l was
doing, but that / was doing something
was enough to bring him to me. l ex-
planned that 1 had been trying to catch
these rainbow fish with bait and with
the fly. His first comment was that
fish of this sort were forbidden to all
but chiefs. That was thing ! knew
already, for Tanoa had told me, and
anyway, I explained that it made no
difference to me in the least, for was
entitled to the best there was going
Then he explained that they would not
take the hook under any circumstances
I thought | knew this already by dint
of experience. Next I showed him my
purse net, only to be told that 1t was
| impossible to net these fish, truth of
which was rapidly becoming con-
| vinced
what shall do, Talolo?" 1 asked
| IF you and the rest of the chiefs eat
these fish there must be some way or
taking them, and you must show me
| how"
There were few things that Talolo
liked better than bossing a job, ana
particularly when by so doing he could
give me a new demonstration OF MS
theory that / had no business to tackle
the natural history of Samoa without
his guidance. To the crew OF small
children he delivered set or positive
orders, which set them at work collect
ing the nets, including the purse that
had set in the pool
~ \ i,,t "a "
alongside of my camp stool and pro-
ceeded to tell me stories He told me
how much he loved me, but by TINS
time that was a well-worn fiction and
was understood to be no more than
preliminary step to the request for the
satisfaction of his manifold wants
From this he branched off to the solem-
nifty of the toboo that existed over
these fish. and the dreadful happenings
that were bound to make themselves
felt in the insides, of any man or wo-
man who should venture to eat them
without being to the manner born.
Even the one method which would
catch them was forbidden to those OF
low estate under most unpleasant pen
allies. After ALL he was of the opinion
that my rank and station was suffi-
GENTLY high to admit me to share lin
these FISH, and my goodness of heart to-
wards him was so great that he was
sure that / would bestow on him some
slight gift in recognition Of his services
in my assistance.
BY the time this harangue was fin
ished and Talolo had received assur-
ances that he would not go unrewarded,
the children came wading back. and
each one bore a At, back load of green
vines with large round leaves. The
children built UP platform Of coral
blocks on the reef and carried it above
the level of the water. On this plat
form the back loads of vines were de-
posted and each carrier set at work
making them up into tight bundles a
yard or SO in length and about a foot
thick, tied around carefully every few
inches. When the bundles were all
made up, one of the children gave Talo-
10 a stout stick, with which he beat
each bundle several smart blows. Then |
tying to one Of the bundles few sink |
ers Of coral rock, he cast 1t into the pool |
as near the center as possible. The |
same was done with the others, and
area of the sandy bottom
was covered with these green fagots.
OF course the very first bundle fright
ened all the fish away to their hiding
places in the coral thickets, but as soon
as the last bundle had made It's splash
the schools of fish returned to their
feeding ground. We sat on the brink
Of the pool to await developments, For
fully five minutes nothing happened.
The vines We're anchored at the bot
tom, the fish swan above, and / was
ready to vote Talolo's efforts as great
failure as my own. But then change
began to make itself manifest in the
deepest school. Instead of swimming
azily the fish began to dart hither and
thither on irregular courses and then to
swim hurriedly to the surface, where
they clustered nearly straight up and
Town. with their mouths out of water
and gulping air. The surface current
and the breeze drifted these fish to the
edge of the basin, where the children
picked them up and put them in my
reel. In a few moments another
school floating a trifie higher was SINH
arly affected, and came stupetied TO
he surface and was caught.
1t was clearly one of the vegetable
ish poisona Of which I had heard as
icing extensively in use in the South
'ea Islands The clubbing which the
bundles of weeds received set free the
ptiVa san and ~ od1lallu 1Dtynd |