fish the evening before by cutting their gills, and at 

 not seeing her hang them up one by one on a hook, 

 cut them through the skin around the back of the 

 head, carve out the dorsal and other fins and then pull 

 the skin off with a pair of pincers. This would have 

 been a new lesson to each of us. No less interesting 

 was the way the old negress told us how to prepare 

 and boil a bass, by sewing it up tightly in a linen 

 cloth, then covering with water and allowing to boil 

 slowly in a biscuit pan on the top of the stove. 



60 



