PISH 



Ngapee 



Medicine. 



Indian Cod-liver 

 Oil. 



Ngapee. 



Smell of. 



Preparation. 



Ngathalauk. 



Fish-paste. 



Balachong. 

 D.E.P., 

 ii., 155 ; 

 iii., 368, 

 375-6, 

 379, 462. 

 Fish- oils. 



FISHERIES OF INDIA 



quantities of fish are utilised as manure near the coast towns of India, very much 

 as in some parts of Europe. Thurston (Bull. Mad. Mus., 1900, No. 2., 120-3) 

 gives much information on the extent to which the sardine is employed as 

 manure, the supply ranging from 2 to 515 tons a year. Fish manure is not un- 

 known to the coffee planters, and Mollison says that for sugar-cane culture this 

 manure is much valued. The Malayas consider the fish Eriivm'i* mi iterate* (I.e. 

 ii., 214) as specially suitable as a manure for fruit trees. [Cf. Simmonds, Waste 

 Prod., etc, 155-77; Lehmann, Rept. Agri. Cult. Chem. Mysore, 1901-2, 14; 

 Mollison, Textbook Ind. Agri., i., 107-8.] 



5. MEDICINE. The bile of certain species of fish is believed to be a valuable 

 medicine, especially that of the ruhu or rui (i^ubeo vottita). [Cf. Taleef Shereef, 

 (Playfair, transl.), 1833, 150.] The brine of pickled fish is alluded to by Paulus 

 ^Egineta (Adams, transl., iii., 81). Fish diet is by the Hindus considered safer 

 for invalids than the flesh of other animals. The oil prepared from many species 

 is used as an efficient substitute for cod-liver oil. 



6. NQAPEE (Ngapi). In an official report issued in 1902 (though not offered 

 for sale) by the Government of Burma on the Inland and Sea Fisheries, refer- 

 ence is made to the account of this preparation as given in the Dictionary. The 

 passage in question was reprinted direct from the description of Tenasserim, 

 written by H. Fenwick in 1849 presumably an authority on Burmese matters of 

 the date in question. The recent official publication enumerates and describes 

 some eighteen different forms of ngapi, the particulars given occupying five pages 

 of closely printed foolscap. It concludes by asking the question, " Why does 

 ngapi smell, it will be asked ? Because, however carefully the stuff is made, there 

 must be always a considerable proportion of uncured flesh, flesh that the salt 

 cannot reach. This flesh decays and rots, but the rest is properly cured fish." 

 To many persons preserved fish in any form is objectionable. The danger 

 of eating a proportion of rotten uncured flesh, however small, may be suggestive 

 of poison and doubtless dictated the appellative " semi-putrid fish " used 

 by Fenwick. The following passage from Nisbet (I.e. i., 361) fairly represents 

 all that is known regarding the preparation of ngapi. " Immediately after being 

 caught and brought to land the fish are either scaled by hand or have the scales 

 roughly brushed off with a frayed bamboo, and are then thrown into a wooden 

 trough, the larger being gutted and deprived of head and fins. After being 

 rubbed with salt they are packed in baskets and pressed down by means of a 

 board weighted with large stones. Next morning they are unpacked and again 

 rubbed with salt, then spread out on thin bamboo mats to dry in the sun until the 

 afternoon of the following day, when they are packed alternately with layers of 

 coarse salt in large earthenware jars placed in the shade. To retard the process 

 of liquefaction of the salt, the powdered bark of the ondon tree ( J/i ? 

 fiebifoi-n) is mixed with it ; but, during the three to five weeks this rough 

 method of pickling is allowed to continue, the oily brine oozing to the top and 

 evaporating, sometimes becomes so full of maggots before drying up that fresh 

 supplies of salt have to be added. The scaleless siluroid mud-fishes are those 

 most easily treated in this way." 



" Greater care is taken in the preparation of ngathalauk (f7fj>p />/*/), 

 the hilsa of Indian rivers, which are simply gutted but not otherwise cleaned, 

 and then salted and sun-dried before being spread between thin bamboo mats and 

 pressed for about three days. These dried fish (ngachauk), the daintiest of 

 Burmese condiments, are both in preparation and in transport handled separately, 

 whereas the stinkingly offensive ngapi is sold in bulk, in baskets and sacks. Both 

 varieties are cooked by roasting or frying when used to flavour the meal of boiled 

 rice." 



" Along the Tavoy and Mergui coast a finer quality of fish-paste is made with 

 shrimps and prawns, which are worked up with salt when half-dried in the sun. 

 As this is eaten uncooked, it is termed seinsa or ' raw food.' The more carefully 

 prepared paste, made with selected small prawns, is frequently used with curry and 

 rice as a chutney by Europeans all along the Malay coast, where it is known as 

 balachong ; and of recent years it has competed with caviare as a bonne bouche 

 in the boulevard restaurants of Paris." [Cf. Mandelslo, Travels, 1639, in Olearius, 

 Hist. Muscovy, etc., 121 ; Symes, Emb. to Ava., 1795, ii., 371 ; Crawfurd, Journ. 

 to Ava, 1834, ii., 176 ; Oaz. Upper Burma and Shan States, ii., pt. i. 433.] 



7. FISH-OIL may be referred to two sections : 



(a) Shark, Ray and Skate Oils. These are sometimes treated separately or 

 mixed (as procured). In the former case an oil is often prepared from some of the 



544 



