Almost Paradise Pt 43 Corinth

(30 June 87) Corinth is the kind of person who lights up a room when he enters. The other constables delight in trading good-natured  barbs with the fifty-five-year-old grandfather as he displays several Kung-Fu moves which he learned from watching Bruce Lee movies.

Corinth has black hair worn in a flat top and eyes that are intense whenever he ponders a question. Then, when he wants to make a point or he has remembered something worth reporting, his eyebrows arch high and his lantern jaw becomes set even more firmly. He’s lived on Kwajalein all his life and has a storehouse of information on Marshallese culture and even some stories about the lives of some of the republic’s prominent citizens. (Click on image to enlarge.)

At Eniwetak one night we talked on a wide range of topics, whatever popped into our heads. I asked him about methods for hunting the blackbirds, in addition to the slingshot and the rock throwing that I witnessed on Omelek.

“There is a way,” he said, “to catch them while they sleep. But you have to be quiet-very quiet.”

“First, you need to cut a stick about this big.” He displayed his thumb as a measure.”

“And long as you can hold it (maybe ten feet). You have to get some bwil.” This is the sticky sap that was clinging to the birds.

“Put it on the end, up maybe this far. When the birds sleep at night you climb the tree-no noise.

“You need to get close so the stick can reach. Put it on the back (of the bird), in the middle and he can’t fly. If you don’t put it in the middle, he can move his wings and all the birds will fly off.”

I mentioned the dead birds I found on the beach with a glue-type substance stuck to their bodies and he confirmed that it was the same substance used to catch the birds. I asked him if the Marshallese catch flying fish (jojo) at Kwajalein. He said they still do around Ebadon Island, which is in the northwest corner of the atoll.

The method I read about is done from a boat. The trap consists of a hibiscus pole about ten feet long with a lacrosse type net (wok en bobo) on the end. In the past torches were used but today lanterns held above the water attract the flying fish. Sometimes they fly into the nets. Other times into the boat or fisherman. Islanders have lost eyes from being hit by the fish. Flying fish are very popular with the Marshallese and a favorite recipe is latuma, flying fish stuffed with pandanus.

Corinth told me about an incident which involved Brand X. He said that a few years back a Marshallese fisherman from Lib, an island shaped like an egg and located a few miles to the west of Kwajalein Atoll, had his boat swamped in rough seas off of Kwajalein. Fortunately for him, the Soviet trawler happened by and pulled him aboard.

The fisherman said he was treated quite well by the crew, given food, dried out and later dropped off at his island. He expressed surprise, though, that everybody on board could speak English.

Corinth came up with a bit of news that one would expect to find on the front page of a tabloid newspaper if they had one out here. He said that Amata Kabua, The president of the Marshall Islands, is half Japanese, the result of a liaison between his mother and a Japanese officer during the early days of Japanese occupation. True or not, the story is well-known among the islanders.