The large shining blue
fishes with bands of blue and rose-red and the yellow ones with spots
of red and green they pack in small baskets between rows of green
leaves. The lobsters, always plentiful, they place in baskets having
compartments so that they cannot get at each other and mangle their
bodies fighting; the oysters they throw into a large common bucket,
keeping out the small and inferior ones to carry to their huts to use
for food. Whenever wind and weather permit the men go off on fishing
expeditions, and this is the usual scene which attends their home
coming. Then, according to whether the haul has been a good or a poor
one, Lihoa, the oldest man in the village, says: "We will take to the
God of the Sea who rides on the Golden Fish a thank offering," or "The
God who rides on the Golden Fish is angry with us; we must pacify him
with strips of gold-paper." And, regularly on an appointed day, the
old man goes up to the cell of the priest carrying the thank- or the
sin-offering, as the case may be, to the God with the dreadful goggle
eyes who rides a gilded sea-monster.
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