Tag Archives: “Native Use of Fish in Hawaii”

Publication of “Native Use of Fish in Hawaii,” 1956.

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Hawaiians Were Gourmets When It Came to Fish

By CLARICE TAYLOR

The Hawaiian pitied the white man as an uncultivated person when he first saw the white man eating fish.

The white man discarded the portions of the fish which the Hawaiians considered delicacies—such as the head, the eyes, the entrails, the skin and the little dark portions next to the bone.

Then, too, the white man only ate cooked fish. He had no idea of the choice flavor of fresh fish eaten immediately after taking it from the water.

All this and much more is told in a new publication, Native Use of Fish in Hawaii by Margaret Titcomb, librarian, and Mary Kawena Pukui, associate in Hawaiian Culture at Bishop Museum.

Published in N. Z.

Native Uses of Fish in Hawaii is a supplement to the Journal of Polynesian Society and was published by the Society in New Zealand.

The books will soon be on sale at the Bishop Museum Bookshop.

Although Native Uses of Fish in Hawaii is a scientific publication, its text is easy to read for the layman and contains much fascinating material on how the Hawaiian at fish, his major source of protein. Continue reading →

Fishes, Margaret Titcomb, and the Bishop Museum, 1940.

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A LETTER

May 25, 1940.

Mr. J. B. Dixon, Circulation Manager,
Ka Hoku O Hawaii,
P. O. Box 1004
Hilo, Hawaii, T. H.

My Dear Mr. Dixon,

I am pleased to hear that you are willing to entertain with aloha my clarification of the publishing of a list of fish names and your running it complimentary on your part. Enclosed is my check for the total of $2.¹

I believe that it would be a fine thing to publish it in portions each week. You and Mr. Anakalea have the ability to edit this kind of thing, and to throw out the bait upon the water.

I am looking at the list of fish names that we have, they are found in various collections, and they are not edited completely. Therefore, I will send the remainder of the list of fish names.

Happy thoughts and good wishes on your Commemorative Anniversary Edition and with hopes that this will be printed before the 11th of June, it will perhaps be something beneficial.

Yours truly,

Margaret Titcomb
Librarian.

[This is no doubt a precursor to the publication Margaret Titcomb did with Mary Kawena Pukui, “Native Use of Fish in Hawaii,” first published in 1952 as Memoir 29 of the Polynesian Society, Wellington, New Zealand. It is currently available in book form from University of Hawaii Press.]

¹It is interesting to note that the cost (prepaid) for a year’s subscription of the Hoku o Hawaii was only $2.00. This is the same cost as a year’s subscription for the Hoku o ka Pakipika and the Nupepa Kuokoa in 1861!

(Hoku o Hawaii, 6/5/1940, p. 2)

HE LEKA

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Volume XXXV, Number 6, Aoao 3. Iune 5, 1940.