Maui Snorkeling Trips »
Posted By MAUIreefannie 1 year, 2 months ago in NewsIn Australia there are more species of this fish (known as leatherjackets down under) than anywhere else in the world. According to historians, in Hawaii, this fish was called lolou, probably because its greenish-white skin resembled the native fan palm. This fish was used for sorcery because the word lou (means to hook). The scrawled filefish, as it is known in Hawaii, is also called broom tail by some locals. From time to time it will fan open the tail, looking very much like a whisk broom. This author also has been told by a local kahu , or Hawaiian priest, that the meat was often toxic, so used for sorcery is what he remembers as a small boy, and told stories of how this animal' s meat would be fed to someone that needed to be ' taken out' . Whether this is fact or not, it makes for an interesting story. I have also been told that their skin, which is very rough and leathery, was used as sandpaper by the ancient Hawaiians. That doesn' t surprise me as it is well known they never wasted anything and found uses for all available to them.
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MAUIreefannie
Marine Naturalist, photographer and educator who has worked in this field for 15 years.
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