158 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



and is much sought after. The flesh is highly tainted 

 with the specific flavour of turtle, and therefore objection- 

 able, though blacks relish it. Further north, in some 

 localities, it is generally believed that the flesh of the 

 hawksbill may be imbued with a deadly poison. Great 

 care is exercised in the killing and butchering, lest a certain 

 gland, said to be located in the neck or shoulder, be opened, 

 as flesh cut with a knife which has touched the critical part 

 becomes impregnated. Here, though the blacks take 

 precautions in the butchering a hawksbill (being aware of 

 its bad repute elsewhere), they have had no actual experi- 

 ence of the unwholesomeness of the flesh. One old seafarer 

 acknowledges that he nearly " pegged out " as the result of 

 a hearty meal of the liver of a hawksbill. As is well 

 known, fish edible in one region may be poisonous in 

 another (Saville-Kent) ; the same principle may apply to 

 the turtle. 



The flesh of the luth or leathery turtle (Dermochelys 

 coriacea) which diets on fish, Crustacea, molluscs, radiates, 

 and other animals, causes symptoms of poisoning ; but the 

 luth does not appear to be common in this part of the 

 Pacific, though it occurs in Torres Straits. 



In a standard work on natural history it is asserted that 

 the natives remove the overlapping plates of tortoiseshell 

 from the hawksbill by lighting a fire on the back of the 

 creature, causing them to peel off easily. " After the plates 

 have been removed, the turtle is permitted to go free, and 

 after a time it is furnished with a second set of plates." 

 Surely this might be classed among the fabulous stories of 

 Munchausen. As the lungs of the turtle lie close to the 

 anterior surface of the carapace, the degree of heat sufficient 

 to cause the plates to come off would assuredly be fatal. 

 Possibly there is explanation at hand. The turtle being 

 killed, the carapace is removed and placed over a gentle 

 fire, and then the plates are eased off with a knife. But that 

 method is not generally approved. Professional tortoiseshell- 

 getters either trust to the heat of the sun or bury the shell 

 in clean sand, and when decomposition sets in, the valuable 



