The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1901-01-18
SOUTH Sc WHI i,
Treat Which Pacific Islanders Have
in Early Autumn b. H

Treat Which Pacific Islanders Have
1T, In Early Autumn. ~
\ / For few days in each year, and al
ways in the month Of September, the,
South sea people have a treat in the
way of ish-a small stream runner.
smaller than the Thames whitebait and
better favored. WI 4 81 ). -, ,.,$ & II ss
The natural history Of the fish is OBJ
scure. It seems to be the fry of some
fish, for when taken away many have the
yelk sac still attached to them. The
school appears lin the mouths Of rivers.
The river mouths at all season of the tide
seem fairly alive with the multitudes of
fish not an inch long, but all swimming
and leaping, under the impulse of the
instinct instinct to e., ascend the fresh-water
streams st, q! Then they are caught simply
and lifting it by its four corners at once.
A square of cloth six feet each way will
hold, at an ordinary draft, half a bushel
Of the fish, which the Samoans and many
other islanders know under the name
lnanga.u During the few days they are
out diminishing the schools in the least.
Enormous numbers of them are known
to pass up the stream, but once past the
par at the river mouth they disappear
from sight and all knowledge. Even in
the height of their return they are not
seen in the streams above the mouth.
yet they are never seen running back to-
sea-. The run lasts for not more than a
week or ten Gays in any one stream, and
on the Island of Upolu seems to begin in
the eastern streams earlier than in those
down to the west. Ap1a narbor has two
Streams debouching into it. Not more
than half mile separates the two. vet
the school begins to run in the Vaising-
ano three days before it makes it's an
pearance in the Mulivai, which lies to the
westward. ~
In native cookery they are wrapped in
panama leaves and steamed for a short
tlMe' but the catchers eat them raw
with great avidity. Once foreign resi-
dent secured mess of the dainty fish
and gave them to Samoan cook bow. to
prepare after civilized methods of cook
cry. The domestic tyrant was not pre-
pared to venture on blunt refusal, but he
professed to be much shocked at the or
that way, he whispered that, of course.
he would obey orders, but he would have
to do It when he could be sure that no
other Samoan could discover what he
was doing. Still further pressed for
reasons for so much secrecy, he an
nounced that the ''inanga" was, in his
own way of putting it, extremely "tu-
for one to eat so highly placed as the
family he had the honor to serve. 1t
was a clever device, but it did not bear
the investigation which followed, the
question Of foods proper to certain ranks
being interesting If true The frying Of
the fish showed why the cook shirked the
task. They keep their vitality for a sur
prisingly long time, and when they are
put into hot pan it is task of much
attention to keep them there, for they
hop about like so many winged creatures.
It was solely to save himself this bother
that the cook had invented low rank
for fish that is really superior to any
of the most famous whitehall. whether
Of England, New Zealand or Puget
sound.-FOrest and Stream.