There are two ways of octopus fishing: In shallow water 

 the spear is used. Women generally attend to this. Their 

 practised eye can tell if an octopus is in a hole whose entrance 

 is no larger than a silver dollar, and plunging their spears in 

 they invariably draw one out. These mollusks have the pe- 

 culiar property of drawing themselves out and compressing 

 their bodies so as to pass through very narrow apertures many 

 times smaller than the natural size or thickness of their bodies. 

 Those caught in shallow waters vary from one to four feet in 

 length, but the larger kinds live in deep water always and are 

 known as hee-o-kai-uli (blue water octopus). They are caught 

 with cowries of the Mauritlana and sometimes of the Tiger 

 species. One or more of these shells is attached to a string 

 with an oblong pebble on the face of the shell, a hole is pierced 

 in one end of the back of one of the shells through which the 

 line is passed, and having been fastened is allowed to project a 

 few inches below, and a hook whose point stands almost per- 

 pendicular ito the shaft or shank is then fastened to the end of 

 the line. Only the finest kind of Mauritiana or Tiger cowries 

 are employed for this purpose as the octopus will not rise to a 

 large-spotted or ugly one. The spots on the back must be 

 very small and red, breaking through a reddish brown ground; 

 such a shell would have the strongest attractions for an octo- 

 pus, and is called ipo (lover). Cowries with suitable spots, but 

 objectionable otherwise, are slightly steamed over a fire of 

 sugar cane husks. This has the effect of giving them the de- 

 sired hue. 



The fisherman having arrived at his fishing grounds first 

 chews and spits on the water a mouthful of candle nut meat 

 which renders the water glassy and clear; he then drops the 

 shell with hook and line into the water and swings it over a 

 place likely to be inhabited by an octopus. This being a vo- 

 racious animal is always, according to Hawaiian fishermen, 

 when in its hole, keeping a look-out for anything eatable that 

 may come within reach of its eight arms. The moment a 

 cowry is perceived an arm is shot out and the shell clasped, if 

 of the attractive kind, oue arm after the other comes out, and 



