A Solomon Is. Fable
p. 65 · Read in the full issue
Geoff Gaskell, of Tulagi, Wins 5/-
Dear Dorothea, I am 15 years of age and would like very much to become a member of the Children’s Corner.
I live on the Island of Beuna Vista, some 25 miles from Tulagi, on which island my parents, my elder brother, and myself are the only white inhabitants.
Being able to converse with the natives here, in their own language, I am able to find out all their ways, and customs, but in this letter I am going to tell you of a native fable about the bonito.
Long ago in the source of a river on Savo there lived four “Atus” (bonito) two being red and the other two silvery blue.
A certain woman who looked after these fish was the only one who knew of them, and every morning brought them a black-lip shell, which she grated on the rocks, and the powder from the shell was eaten by the fish.
One day, however, the husband of the woman wondered where she went every morning, so followed her, and watched her feed the “Atus.” After she had gone he went and caught a red one and ate it.
When the “Mother” of the “Atus” found this out, she was very annoyed, and floated down stream on a log, followed by the fish, and on reaching the sea she swam off with the fish and became a dugong.
The husband, feeling sorry for his deed, became a shark and also went into the sea.
That is the legend. Now, the descendants of the woman have the power of getting their “devils” to work, and making the woman bring the “Atus” to where they want them, so that they can fish for them. All over the group the natives go to Savo to buy the “devils” from the descendants to make the “Atus” come to their district.
The bait, which is trailed among a shoal of “Atus,” is made of the same kind of shell as the woman was supposed to have fed them on, black lip shell.
It is only the blue “Atus” which bite, and sometimes twenty or more, are caught by one man. A shark and a dugong are often seen amongst the “Atus,” and three times, to my know ledge, natives have gone to Savo to buy “devils,” and each time the “Atus” have come to their individual districts for about four months.