Some clever ways of catching fish—How the bonito is landed—Native
nets—Pig-hunting—The sly opossum and the crocodile.
Lazy as the Solomon islanders are they are excellent sportsmen, and be
it man-hunting, pig-hunting, or fishing, it is all the same, they go in
for it with a fine relish. Cunning and dexterity play an important part
in their methods, and make up for their want of up-to-date appliances.
At fishing they surpass most native races, their ingenuity in this
sport being remarkable. Where the white man will fail with all his
latest improvements in fishing tackle, these uncultivated men will
succeed with quickly improvised and crude materials.
For bonito-fishing they have a remarkable device, and entice these
large fish from the deep sea and catch them as easily as an English
boy will secure a stickleback. It is one of the most {114} exciting
of their sports to watch. A man stands on a rock, for preference, and
throws out a line some thirty or forty feet in length, attached to the
end of which is a floating bait of some fatty matter; below him and
bending double into the water is another native, who works a little
piece of bamboo cut off at the joints and having a hollowed-out groove
in it. With his thumb in the end of the hollow and his hand gripping
the stick he works this backwards and forwards in the water, giving it
a peculiar twist, which makes it send forth a weird and uncanny noise.
This sound, so they say, is in imitation of the cry of female or male,
I forget which, bonito, and so attracts to it a mate.
Whilst one man is steadily working in this manner, the other on the
rock is watching every movement of the native with an alertness and
excitement which is shown by his tense attitude. Long before the
untrained eye has noticed anything peculiar, this fisher has gradually
begun to draw in his bait, and soon the great head of the bonito is
seen rising out of the water in an endeavour to catch the bait. But
the fisher, who by now is in a perfect steam of excitement, adroitly
snatches the bait away only just quickly enough to save it. The bonito
dives, and the next instant he is up again {115} and after the
tempting morsel at full swing. From that moment a most exciting chase
begins, and the extraordinary way in which the native gradually entices
the great fish to within a few yards of the shore without frightening
it, or allowing it to seize the bait, is as fine a performance as one
could wish to see.
[Illustration 39: THE REEF NEAR SIMBO, SOLOMON ISLANDS]
All this time the other man is working away at his bonito call. Then
suddenly the water is lashed into foam, and the man on the rock is
straining every muscle. The fish is hooked, and three or four adroit
tugs at the line bring him in to the foot of the rock, where he is
pounced on by the two men, speared, and landed. Even then the game is
not ended, for a bonito dies hard, and a struggle of no mean order is
sometimes gone through before the natives have conquered.
To see two black figures struggling with a fish nearly as big as
themselves is an extraordinary sight, and is perhaps the most
exciting part of the sport. More than one native has been injured in
the last act, but that only adds to their keenness to conquer, for
they have unlimited courage, as every one who has lived amongst them
knows—except, I may add, when superstition plays a part, then they are
the most abject cowards. {116}
Kite-fishing, though less exciting, is another popular form of fishing
and is conducted in the following manner. A large kite is sailed behind
a canoe, and attached to the tail of the kite is a line with a bait
which just touches the water. The gentle bobbing of the kite makes the
bait jump on the surface, in the same way that an ordinary angler makes
his fly play on the water. This is supposed to suggest the presence of
a small fish, and the kite is there to represent a bird hovering over
it. In this way large fish are attracted and caught.
Ordinary line and hook fishing is also used, and the hooks are
beautifully made, sometimes of mother-of-pearl and sometimes of turtle
shell.
On a moonlight night a party of natives will go out in their canoes to
fish for the makasi, a large fish which feeds round the mouth of rivers
and lagoons. This is a somewhat dangerous sport, owing to the captive
fish occasionally being attacked by a shark just as it is being landed,
which sometimes results in the canoe being upset, and its occupants,
the fish, and the shark all getting mixed up. Such an excitement and
noise is caused by the yelling fishermen that the shark is often
frightened, and clears off without even tasting either the fish or the
fishers.
[Illustration 40: NATIVE ARCHER SHOOTING FISH, BRITISH SOLOMON
ISLANDS]
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The most ingenious devices in the way of nets are used in different
parts of the island. Some are even made of a tough spider’s web; whilst
others are almost the same in construction as the English net and,
strange to say, are knotted in a similar manner. The hand-net varies in
length to about eighteen inches and is made on different kinds of wood,
often bamboo. The mesh is small, and the handle is, as a rule, most
elaborately carved with representations of sharks, frigate birds, etc.,
and is made of wood. For ordinary purposes a two and a half inch mesh
is used, but a six inch is used on the larger nets for big fish.
A party of natives will often be seen carrying peculiar flat hand-nets
made of light bamboo, with an arched top, varying in length to some
eighteen feet. Armed with these queer-shaped things they wade out into
the shallow water, where they know a shoal of fish is at play, and by
pushing their nets before them they form a circle round the shoal and
thus have it at their mercy. They are wonderfully sharp in knowing when
a school of fish is about, and they show a surprising amount of energy
in capturing it.
Dynamite is now frequently used by the natives here as in New Guinea,
as they have learned from {118} the traders that it is an easy method
of obtaining big hauls, and anything that saves them labour they
immediately adopt, as long as it does not interfere with their old
customs.
There is another form of fishing which is pretty general all round the
coasts of the different islands. Bèche-de-mer, or the Malayan trepang.
It is a curious-looking thing like a piece of india-rubber, very tough
and flexible, and is found on coral reefs. It has no eyes, nor does it
seem to possess any means of getting about. In length it varies from
six to twelve inches and is between two and three inches thick.
The natives gather them off the rocks or catch them in very low water;
and immediately after they have got a basket full they clean and dry
them, and then boil them for about a quarter of an hour. Some are cut
open like a herring and smoked over an ordinary wood fire for about a
day. The Bèche-de-mer industry is a big one, and Chinamen are very fond
of it, as they can make good money by it without a large outlay. Great
care has to be taken in storing the fish, as the slightest damp causes
them to rot.
Spearing fish from a platform built on piles a little way out to sea
is also popular here amongst {119} the boys, and their well-trained
eyesight comes into play; having once spotted a fish they seldom miss
him with their spear.
[Illustration 41: SEARCHING FOR SMALL OCTOPI ON THE REEF AT LOW TIDE,
SAMARI, BRITISH NEW GUINEA.
While sketching at Samari I remember seeing these men; they were busy
poking under stones and coral with short sticks for octopi. These
sticks very soon became soft and bent at the end; they then came to
me to have them sharpened with my penknife. These small octopi form a
part of the natives’ food. In the distance is the island of Sariba.]
In mentioning the native eyesight, personally, I don’t think any of
the savage races are better equipped in this respect than we are. What
appears to be keenness of vision is only training, and I have noticed
the same keen-sightedness amongst cattle-men in the Colonies. They will
recognise a cow miles away in the scrub, which unaccustomed eyes cannot
even see when the animal and place in which it is are pointed out. A
little practice, however, soon overcomes this, and in a very short
time the new chum is as quick as the old Colonial in spotting cattle.
I mention this experience, as I have seen a good deal of nonsense
written on the subject, and the extraordinary strength of the natives’
eyesight in these parts has been commented on. I know that, with a
little practice, any one possessing average good sight can equal these
so-called extraordinary creatures.
The same thing applies to the power shown by natives of throwing the
voice. Necessity has made these men speak to each other from long
distances, and so they have unconsciously dropped into the {120} right
method of doing it. They cannot tell you how it is done—they just do it.
To return to island sports, there is nothing from an Englishman’s
point of view to beat a good pig-hunt, and in the Solomons it can be
enjoyed better than in most places. In all parts of the bush pigs can
be found, in fact, the one thing the traveller has to look out for more
particularly than anything else, is the sudden rush of an angry boar.
There are no dangerous snakes or ferocious animals inhabiting the bush,
and you can pass a night under a tree with perfect safety, and sleep as
securely as in your own bunk, provided, of course, you are on friendly
terms with the natives. Pigs are the only things that need watching.
When a sow has a litter and you accidentally come too close to her
haunt, then there is trouble, and the nearest tree is the safest spot
to make for.
In hunting pigs the native dogs come in useful, but only for starting
and rounding them up, for it is seldom they will actually attack and
kill them. That part of the business, including the long chase over
fallen trees and through masses of vines and the thousand and one other
obstructions, is left to the hunters. The natives themselves are keen
on {121} the game, and are very smart with their spears and tomahawks.
The white men tackle them as a rule with gun or knife. One of the most
exciting pig-hunts I was ever in was when our whole party was armed
with sheath knives only. The pig was bailed up against a big tree and
we closed in on him, knives in hand, and, whilst his attention was
being attracted by one of the party, another rushed in and struck the
fatal blow.
Those bush pigs are larger than the ordinary unfattened farm pig, and
the boars have very fine curved tusks almost equal to the Indian pig.
The young ones have a delicious taste, and when properly cooked in a
native oven make very good eating; they are as tender as chickens.
The wily opossum leads its hunters a rare dance, but the natives, who
are its chief hunters, enjoy the game thoroughly. It is a sport at
which white men are no good as it necessitates remarkable agility in
tree climbing. The boys run up the trunks of the trees and give chase
to the little animal from tree to tree. They follow the opossum as
quick as lightning, until the poor creature is driven to the ground.
Then, of course, he is captured easily, as his clumsy movements prevent
him from running at any great speed—all {122} his powers of swinging
by his tail are lost when he gets on the ground.
Owing to the thickness of the undergrowth in the bush hunting is not
over enjoyable, and it generally resolves itself into a track-making
expedition, and the only way to ensure a safe return to the village is
to mark the trees as one goes. There is such a similarity in shape of
the trees and the lay of the country that it is impossible to remember
the way one has come, and as the light only penetrates dimly into the
thickest parts, one cannot get any knowledge as to the shape of the
tops of trees, a method by which one is often able to travel with
certainty in less thickly growing bush. This darkness also prevents one
from getting one’s bearings by the sun, so that tree scarring is the
only sure method of avoiding unnecessary delay in the bush.
Crocodiles are met with pretty frequently in the swampy districts and
in the rivers. They are of the usual type, ranging from six to fourteen
feet in length. They do not seem to mind salt water in the least, and
are often observed quite a distance out from the shore, in fact, when
they are chased they generally make for the sea. I do not know whether
this is common with crocodiles in other {123} lands, but those in the
South Sea islands appear to prosper and be contented in both fresh and
salt water.
[Illustration 42: THE HOME OF THE CROCODILE, BRITISH SOLOMON ISLANDS]
The natives seldom hunt them, and do not hold them in fear. They will
even bathe in a river known to be frequented by them. Whereas in
Queensland rivers no sensible man would dream of such a thing, his life
would not be worth more than the first two strokes. The crocodiles
there are of a far more ferocious disposition, and have been known to
chase men a considerable distance on land, while such a thing has never
been heard of in these islands.
Beyond these few forms of sport there is nothing to attract the tourist
sportsman to the Solomons, as the country is devoid of all other
animals worthy of the chase, and the fishing is such that any island
far nearer and less dangerous will supply; but being in these quarters
these few sports help to pass the time, and give one opportunities of
seeing the bush at its best. Its grandeur cannot be appreciated unless
one gets right into it, and feels its solitude and silence, then and
then only does the bush speak and show itself.
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