DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49708#0102
86
SESSIONAL PAPERS; 1881.
THE
MALDIVES.
Productions and
Manufactures.
Bonito fishery.
As fishing is “ the most constant exercise” of these Islanders—the boni-to fishery in
particular having mainly supplied them with the means of subsistence for centuries—
Pyrard’s detailed description of the various times and modes of fishing adopted at the
Maldives will not be out of place : —
“ The fish which are taken in the deep sea about six or seven leagues off the bars of
the Attollons are large aud of seven or eight sorts, such as bonitos, albacores, guilt-
heads, &c., which are all much of the same taste, and have no more scales than a mackrel.
The instruments with which they catch them are a line of a fathom and an half of great
cotton thread tied to a cane, together with a hook that in form resembles the letter h.
The bait is not fastened upon the hook, but thrown about into the sea; for they drag after
their boat a quantity of small fish like our roaches, which are very numerous among the
banks and sands, and which are preserved alive in purse-nets of cocoa-thread ; and when
they come to the deep sea they cast these little fishes about, and throw in their line.
Upon which the great fishes perceiving an unwonted quantity of little fish crowd upon them
in shoals, greedily swallow the whitened hook, taking it for one of the little fish. The
fish that swallows the hook falls off as soon as the line is brought into the boat, and so
the line is thrown in again. At this rate they will fill their boat with fish in three or
four hours’ time,* and (which is very strange) the boat is all along under sail. The fish
thus taken are all black, from whence they are called cobolhi masse \ kalu-bUl-mas~\ i.e., the
black fish.’f
Other modes of
fishing.
Crustacea,
“ They have another way of fishing in the night time upon the banks that surround the
Attollons. At every full and every new moon they convey themselves to the banks upon
hurdles [or rafts, kadu-fati\, and the fishing lasts three days every time. ’Tis performed
by lines of hard coarse cotton thread, some of which are fifty or sixty fathom long, and are
blackened over with the bark of a tree that serves instead of pitch, in order to preserve it
from corruption. At the end of this line they have a hook with a bait fastened upon it,
after the same manner as is usual among us. By this means they catch a prodigious
quantity of large red fish, such as I never saw elsewhere, which eats most deliciously and
is by them called the King of the Sea. In fine, they have such plenty of several sorts of
fish, and different ways of taking them unknown to us, that ’tis impossible to distinguish
them ; for, besides the lines abovementioned, they have all sorts of nets of cotton, twine,
wheels and other instruments for fishing. Upon the flats near the shore they catch small
fish like pilchards with casting nets.
“At the two equinoxes they have a general fishing, which is very remarkable. At
these two periods of the year, as the tides flow beyond their wonted bounds, so they ebb
more than usual and discover several rocks and flats, which at other times continue under
water. Upon this occasion the Maldivians pitch upon several dry corners, which they
encompass with stones raised like a wall to a great height, being forty paces in circum-
ference, with a door or entrance left that is three paces wide. This done, thirty or forty
of them stretch out, all round the flats, a large wide circle of the great cocoa cords at each
fathom of which they tie a piece of cocoa shell dried, and that supplies the place of cork,
making the line float. Now the fish inclosed within the circle are so scared with the
shadow of the floating line as if it had a net underneath it, that instead of making their
escape by swimming, they fly from it, and by the gradual contraction of the line are
brought into the inclosure, the entry of which is thereupon stopped with all expedition
with faggots of the boughs and leaves of cocoa compacted together of the bigness of a
man ; after all the sea runs out and leaves the fish on the dry land. This fishery, which
continues fifteen days together, produces commonly ten or twelve thousand fish.”}
Crustacea are widely represented, including most species of cray-fish from the larger
Palinuri, and crabs—Painted, Hermits, Paddlers, Occypocles, &c.—in numbers sufficient
to “ cover whole islands.”
* “ The quantity thus taken in a day by one boat sometimes amounts to 1,000 ’ (Trans. Bom. Geo.
Soc., 1876—8, p. 79) ; 600 or 700 is considered a fair take.
f See Note (3) on ‘ Fish-curing at the Maldives.’ J Pyrard, quoted in Harris, Vol. I., pp. 711, 712.
SESSIONAL PAPERS; 1881.
THE
MALDIVES.
Productions and
Manufactures.
Bonito fishery.
As fishing is “ the most constant exercise” of these Islanders—the boni-to fishery in
particular having mainly supplied them with the means of subsistence for centuries—
Pyrard’s detailed description of the various times and modes of fishing adopted at the
Maldives will not be out of place : —
“ The fish which are taken in the deep sea about six or seven leagues off the bars of
the Attollons are large aud of seven or eight sorts, such as bonitos, albacores, guilt-
heads, &c., which are all much of the same taste, and have no more scales than a mackrel.
The instruments with which they catch them are a line of a fathom and an half of great
cotton thread tied to a cane, together with a hook that in form resembles the letter h.
The bait is not fastened upon the hook, but thrown about into the sea; for they drag after
their boat a quantity of small fish like our roaches, which are very numerous among the
banks and sands, and which are preserved alive in purse-nets of cocoa-thread ; and when
they come to the deep sea they cast these little fishes about, and throw in their line.
Upon which the great fishes perceiving an unwonted quantity of little fish crowd upon them
in shoals, greedily swallow the whitened hook, taking it for one of the little fish. The
fish that swallows the hook falls off as soon as the line is brought into the boat, and so
the line is thrown in again. At this rate they will fill their boat with fish in three or
four hours’ time,* and (which is very strange) the boat is all along under sail. The fish
thus taken are all black, from whence they are called cobolhi masse \ kalu-bUl-mas~\ i.e., the
black fish.’f
Other modes of
fishing.
Crustacea,
“ They have another way of fishing in the night time upon the banks that surround the
Attollons. At every full and every new moon they convey themselves to the banks upon
hurdles [or rafts, kadu-fati\, and the fishing lasts three days every time. ’Tis performed
by lines of hard coarse cotton thread, some of which are fifty or sixty fathom long, and are
blackened over with the bark of a tree that serves instead of pitch, in order to preserve it
from corruption. At the end of this line they have a hook with a bait fastened upon it,
after the same manner as is usual among us. By this means they catch a prodigious
quantity of large red fish, such as I never saw elsewhere, which eats most deliciously and
is by them called the King of the Sea. In fine, they have such plenty of several sorts of
fish, and different ways of taking them unknown to us, that ’tis impossible to distinguish
them ; for, besides the lines abovementioned, they have all sorts of nets of cotton, twine,
wheels and other instruments for fishing. Upon the flats near the shore they catch small
fish like pilchards with casting nets.
“At the two equinoxes they have a general fishing, which is very remarkable. At
these two periods of the year, as the tides flow beyond their wonted bounds, so they ebb
more than usual and discover several rocks and flats, which at other times continue under
water. Upon this occasion the Maldivians pitch upon several dry corners, which they
encompass with stones raised like a wall to a great height, being forty paces in circum-
ference, with a door or entrance left that is three paces wide. This done, thirty or forty
of them stretch out, all round the flats, a large wide circle of the great cocoa cords at each
fathom of which they tie a piece of cocoa shell dried, and that supplies the place of cork,
making the line float. Now the fish inclosed within the circle are so scared with the
shadow of the floating line as if it had a net underneath it, that instead of making their
escape by swimming, they fly from it, and by the gradual contraction of the line are
brought into the inclosure, the entry of which is thereupon stopped with all expedition
with faggots of the boughs and leaves of cocoa compacted together of the bigness of a
man ; after all the sea runs out and leaves the fish on the dry land. This fishery, which
continues fifteen days together, produces commonly ten or twelve thousand fish.”}
Crustacea are widely represented, including most species of cray-fish from the larger
Palinuri, and crabs—Painted, Hermits, Paddlers, Occypocles, &c.—in numbers sufficient
to “ cover whole islands.”
* “ The quantity thus taken in a day by one boat sometimes amounts to 1,000 ’ (Trans. Bom. Geo.
Soc., 1876—8, p. 79) ; 600 or 700 is considered a fair take.
f See Note (3) on ‘ Fish-curing at the Maldives.’ J Pyrard, quoted in Harris, Vol. I., pp. 711, 712.