p. 77 | THE STING-RAY

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 3, 1887

THE STING-RAY.

IN Mr. Wyatt Gill's interesting volume, "Jottings from the Pacific," recently published by the American Tract Society, is a description of a curious and much-dreaded fish which inhabits the waters of the South Pacific. It is called the sting-ray on account of two long, bony spines which are fixed in its tail and which it uses to kill its prey. It sometimes attains the length of fourteen or fifteen feet, but rarely exceeds twelve. Its mode of capturing its victims is to bury itself in the sand, its eyes and forehead alone visible and its whip-like tail appearing as a stick in the water. The moment an unwary fish attempts to glide past the lurking-place of the monster, it is instantly struck down and devoured. Natives wading or diving in the water sometimes have the misfortune to tread upon the buried fish. In an instant the intruder is lassoed and the serrated spine of the tail driven into the flesh. The point of this terrible weapon is sure to snap off; if in the body, there is no hope of life; if in the leg or foot, it must be taken out from the opposite side, as the barbs make it impossible to pull it out. The natives of the islands of this region assert that this fish has the power of shooting with one of its spines when attacked. Mr. Gill speaks of seeing the spine of a sting-ray sticking in the corner of a house at Taunu. It is said to have been the custom of the natives in former times to rid themselves of their foes by means of the spines of the ray. The spines were split, for the purpose, into three parts. Each part was called in the native tongue aitu tangata, that is, "a human god," the gods being the arbiters of human destiny. One of these splinters fixed in a place where it would enter the body of a foe would soon produce death by working its way inward to a vital part. The general method was to fix a splintered spine upright under the mat of a sleeping victim, so that in turning over in sleep it would be sure to enter the person and do its deadly work. The sting-ray is much esteemed for food among all the islands of the Pacific. In the Hervey group, it is called, on account of its shape, the "bird-like Tamanu."

—New York Observer.