The Days of a Man 1884 



ing was: "Ah, but you must see Don Felipe; he 

 Don . knows all about fishes." And I soon found that the 

 phrase, "amigo de Don Felipe" served as a passport 

 to friendly help and honest dealing, for every fisher- 

 man knew Poey and regarded him as a personal 

 friend. "Almost every day for twenty years," 

 said one dealer to me, "Don Felipe was in the market 

 at noon when the catch came in from the boats, and 

 he knows more about the fishes than the fishermen 

 themselves." Even in the years that followed, after 

 he ceased to visit the market, he was not forgotten 

 there, for many a rare specimen found its way from 

 the Pescaderia to his home near by in the Calle 

 San Nicolas. In a vague way, moreover, the towns- 

 people generally had heard of Don Felipe's fame 

 in far-off lands, and felt that his glory was in some 

 degree reflected on themselves. 



Fishes The fish fauna of Cuba is enormously rich. It 

 f had, however, been thoroughly studied by Poey. 

 But I was able to secure at the market one small 

 "mojarra" Diapterus olisthostomus which in forty 

 years of observation he had never found. This 

 is not so strange, as a rare little fish that looks 

 like something else may easily escape notice in the 

 great mass. The people eat everything, big and 

 little, except a few forms which the law specifies 

 as poisonous, 1 and the long tables in the great market 

 are always loaded. 



The fruit market of Havana was the richest in 



1 Certain tropical fishes may at times hold within their flesh a poisonous 

 alkaloid bearing some resemblance in effect to strychnine, and producing a 

 dangerous disease called ciguatera. In very warm waters some species seem 

 to be always poisonous, some only occasionally so; and some with dusky or 

 livid colors are regarded with much suspicion, though often without evidence. 



C 286] 



