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.
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.
native archer shooting fish, british solomon islands
{117}
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.
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 lands, but those in the south sea islands appear to prosper and be contented in both fresh and salt water.
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.