Nuhou, Volume I, Number 5, 11 March 1873 — Market News. [ARTICLE]

Market News.

We tōok a stroll into our and fruit markct last Saturday afternoon. We iioticed mueh that oūght to T>e of interest to the home rcader, and that would l?e curious to thc foreign obecrver. The market is not very large, ahout twenty-seven stalls forming three gides of a small lot; hut busine«B is brisk, and a large number of kanakas, perhaps thousands, get thcir supplieB thcre during the day, Saturday being of course s \yith 6uch Sunday-obserying pepple, thc busicst day in the week. We had to elhow our way ,ainong an cscited, yet good naturcd, crpwd of markcters. Fish is the chicf articlc in demand, What a great and curiouB variety of the produce of the sea is to bc eeen. Of course an Agassiz would fill volumes in desēribing this piscatorjal display v but we shall merely glancc at aome principal fish caten by kanakae, with a few peculiarities of description.

The aku bonito, or skip-jaek, is perhaps tliēmost abundant, and ean be caugbt in some parts of these seas by hook and line, about as fast as you ean drop a bait and haul in. It is a drj fish, but boiled and with plenty of egg sauce is passable. squid or euttle fish, is probably the most generally eaten and most relished of all the creatures of our waters. A genuiue old savage of Polynesia ean tear with hie teeth the pauneh of the live cuttle, whilst its nervy, outreaching, clinging, tentaeular, snake-like arms are twincd around his neek; but our kanakas, and a good many foreigners, usually eat the cuttle fish dry salted; and we have made a good luneh on squid and poi when hungry. The kihikihi is a sort of sea eoek, most bcāutifully colored, with alternate black and yellow transverse bands on its bo.dy, and makes a niee fry. The hhialea is one of the prettiest fellows of our seas t if we cxcept parrot lish. ; The hināka resemblcs a mullet, but the beauty of its marks and eoloring are marvelous ; bright ;green longitiidinal l>dnds elash its dark glbssy head ; it' has a purple body of diffi3rent shadee, and a blue spottcd tail with a ! yellow tip } and tastes as well 'm lt looks. ThCj kalano has the skin ajnd hovn of a rhinoccros. The ohna, a pink scale| feh, lms thc shapc andj tender delicate meat of a trout'; it ean unly be! ohtainēd 4>y spearing in the rocks at low tide along the shores of the ;windward ,islands t and as^ it spoils so rapidty, is sddom socn in this mavket. [ The bcautiiuljy t?tnped and nu>ttle>i t r* a| • - ! I

f ten(lcr, jnicy nti<l afior(ls caj,ital pport t to t':<: ra|ngler. The muilēt if> almost as plentiful in the£c watcrs ag the hening |in tbe Atlantīc. Wē hn\<: I laken several hun,diedp at one haul of tlie seinc. | We havo a fi&h *exactly resembling thc hcrring. ! whosc name we forgot'. The hala b a noble pink meat almok liko balmon, and having no small bones is a great treat. The muninilia« tranßverse stripes acrdes b its body like kihihihi ekcept that they are hlaek arid white instead o.f ]_ybllow ancrblack. Other mullet &haped.fiBh art\ J the hilu, the and the pualu. The oiō | has a iong flat head Bbaped like a wedge, and is j succulent eating. Aleo the uu t a red fish ; the ! īiake,a pale pink dace-shaped fish. Thc hvmuhumu y with a pachydermatous ekin, a yello\v mouth , and a diamond-shaped body, is poor eating, like all the ehark-ekinned monstcrs of the xieep. And eo we might> go on and enumeratc eeveral hundred fish caught and eatcn by IlaWaiiane 1 ; buT we will pass on to other articles. | Bivalves and limpets of great variety arc toler~ ably plentiful. The.ppilu, a limpet, that tastea a eeollop is very| plentiful, and oap be gatiiered from the rocks on our bold coasts. You eannot remove the limpet from the rock with vbur fingers, and the kanaka usually knoeks it ofi"' %vith a stonc. In oiir. limpeting we wouki piek them ofl* with a case-knife. As' we sought for tticm at low tide ; riot mmding an oecasional sWash of the sea } we would observc the dark, cj)rrugatedf convex sh ! ells a littlc eased away or raiecd from thc rock. probably to aSbrd the llmpct an airing, wlien we would wateh our ehanee. slip in the edgc : of our knife, and befbrc thc po«>r fillow could haul in and make taught to the rock, #e would easily slip him off into our baskct. r ihere- is a swcet little 03*stcr, found usually among the coral, cailod pipi.

! | Of craw-fish tliere are most beaiitiful varictlea. | The uīa is as large as a lobster ; ;t is more varicgtited and bcautiful, but ie has not its largc nippers or claws. ? The |purplc-spikcd sca urchins, _tlie blacfe-spiked sca oggs or wana, and the ina or egg without spikes 3 are among the curiosities of our scas, and are all to be fbund at timcs in our market, Also thc opm, or Large turtles are plcntiful ar?d very eheap. But considering the avcrage price of iieh Ilonolulu marfet. it is probably somewhat deaxer than butmeat. It will averag6 about ten cents a pound. Thc kanaka buys M as a rellsh f ana nbt for ēconomy. At ,Lnhaina and at other poima tiu*oughout the i?lands, fish is usually abuudam ahd very elieap. Eaked fish, put up in about paekagcs jīn ki or i'a-i lcar, sells for t|renty-Sve eents a p(" cka g°- The la-i or ki leai, or dracana ti rminaUs % is thc iuvaluable niaterial of the kanaka fur all sorts of puxposes. Tu aJ7 lcaf !fe wraps|up for you a baked taro roo t, or a fish, or pieee of pork, or anything clse connected wUh his mjirketing, Wc-must 1101 omit sea-wtvd,a notable rdish oi* l|awaiians, and we uqticed~Tour vaxietics iu uiarket, the manawca> tljc lipoa, thc $cpc aud thc oi)/?/, alikuowu to kaijakas by ihe gcncric tcrm v Xhis is ofteu bjikcd at\d put up imo balb a,j littlo ovcr a pound wcight, whieh scllior ,onc nal eaeh, I But we Ikivc uuidc tlio articic longer than, we iuien^^l^aii'd eannotj spcak of JTruu, whieh >viil a|lbrd matcrial for auothcr artiek\ As we lyaYc opcncd thc ,subject» >ve intend to discuss \cry i\ply mcat and vegctablc> and all tlut to|ir fccd iu thc£c u4a,ud- |