COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 415 
FISHING WITH THE HANDS. 
The native men, women, and children are perfectly at home in the 
water, spending a good portion of their time there. As a result of 
this they have become exceedingly expert in diving and swimming. 
Frequently they catch the various inhabitants of the water with their 
hands, and in some places this has become quite an important source 
of revenue to them. It is a common sight, in the less densely inhab- 
ited regions, to see astark-naked native man or woman crouching down 
in the shallow water and feeling around the coral and lava rocks for 
fish, papai (crabs), and opai (shrimp). Some of the fishermen dive to 
the haunts of certain species of fishes, and thrusting their arms into 
holes or under rocks bring out the fish one by one and put them into a 
bag attached, for the purpose, to the malo or loin cloth. Opai, oopus 
(gobies), and gold-fish are frequently taken by women with their hands 
in the fresh-water streams and taro patches, and form a considerable 
part of their food supply. 
In fishing for octopus the native dives to the bottom, and with a 
stick pokes around in the small holes in which the hee lives. When 
he touches one it seizes the stick and allows him to draw it out of the 
hole. When he reaches the surface the native grabs it with his hands 
and bites into the head, thus killing the animal. 
The ula is also frequently taken by the diver with his hands. The 
fisherman first provides himself with a small bag, which he attaches 
to his malo. His right hand he carefully wraps up in a bag or a kong 
piece of cloth. This is to prevent the ula from biting him. Diving 
down to the bottom, he feels around in the crevices and holes among 
the rocks with his bandaged hand, pulling out the ulas he finds and 
putting them in the bag, returning to the surface whenever necessary. 
Frequently he will bring up two or three at a time. Sometimes the 
fishermen are severely bitten by puhis, which at times make their 
home in the ula holes. 
Nearly all the mollusks are gathered by hand. The opihi (limpet), 
which attaches itself to rocks, is detached by knives. The béche-de- 
mer (sea slug), wana and ina (sea eggs) are also taken by hand. 
The varieties of Jimu (algve) which are eaten by the natives are all 
gathered by hand, and this forms quite a profitable business for a 
number of women and children on the various islands. 
LINE FISHING. 
Fishing with rod, hook, and line (called by the natives ‘* Paeaea”) is 
not practised to any considerable extent commercially, except for aku 
(bonito). In this fishing, mother-of-pearl hooks, made from the shell 
of a mollusk, now quite rare, are used. These hooks are called pa, and 
as they glisten with an iridescence like the shimmer from the scales of 
the smaller kinds of fish on which the aku lives, no bait is needed. 
