291 LITTLE FOLKS 
LITTLE LIVE CANDLES. 
Perhaps you'll laugh at the idea of candles coming out of the 
sea, — live ones, too. And I fear you'll hardly believe me, when I 
tell you that not only candles, but quart bottles, can be had for the 
gathering. 
I want to tell you how the Indians, who live on the shore, get 
their supply of light for the winter evenings ; and I may as well 
confess at once, that the candles are small fish, so very fat that 
they burn readily. 
The Candle Fish are very fond of coming to the top of the 
water when the moon shines ; so, on moonlight nights the Indian 
goes out in his canoe, and very softly steals up among them. He 
holds in his hand a sort of comb, big enough to be great-grand- 
father to common combs. The teeth are made of sharp bones, or 
pointed nails. 
When the Indian gets among the pretty fish, playing in the 
moonlight, he sweeps his tremendous comb through the water with 
all his strength, bringing it up half full of fish, sticking to the 
dreadful teeth. Holding it over the canoe, he gives it a rap, and 
the fish fall off. Thus he keeps on till his boat is full of the silvery 
little fellows. 
The next thing is to dry them, and this the squaws do, by 
stringing them on to a stick, running it through their eyes, and 
hanging them up in the wigwam to dry and smoke. 
The upper part of an Indian wigwam is the best place in the 
world to smoke things, for it is always thick with smoke. When 
the beautiful little fish are all dry, and shrivelled up, the squaws 
take a long wooden needle, threaded with a stringy bark, and draw 
it through the fish from head to tail. That is for the wick, and the 
fish is so fat it will burn like a candle. 
Not all of them are burned, however; the Indians like them 
to eat, and when they have enough laid up for that purpose, they 
make oil of the rest, by heating and pressing. 
Then comes the need of something to hold oil ; and, as I have 
