FISH CANNIBALS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1921, Page 10

FISH CANNIBALS.

WORSE THAN SHARKS. WOMAN TERRIBLY INJURED. HORRORS OF FIJI WATERS. Suva (Fiji), .Sept. 21. Many stories are told of the horrors of meeting sharks or oetopi in their native haunts, but the following cases will appeal as something new: A fish in Fiji waters much more dreaded by the natives than the shark is the ogo (pronounced ongo). He is a savage cannibal, dark blue backed, with silver belly, a long thin fish like a giant garfish or a pike, with, long jaws, armed with cruel sharp teeth for tearing. He is a splendid sporting fish, and endeavors to overrun the line to bite it. He devours his own kind and anything else he can find, and he grows to 7 or Bft. long. He often attacks natives when fishing. Not long ago several native women were scattered over a shallow area fishing with hand nets.. One elderly woman was somewhat apart from the others. Her wild screams brought assistance, only too late, and w'hen she was carried ashore it was found she had been attacked by several ogo. One breast had been bitten off, and great bitea taken out of her legs and body. She quickly collapsed. Another horror came to light on Monday, when a native arrived from the island of Benga, famous for ita wonderful fire walkers. It was a new horror, and the first case old residents remember. The man showed two rows of healing gashes down each side of his face, and his explanation was thrilling. It appears that while fishing his anchor had fouled, and he dived into several fathoms of water to free it. As he lay on the bottom, partly on his side, freeing the anchor, he was suddenly seized by a huge codfish, whose jaws closed on his head just over the ears. The pain was awful, but he had wit enough to fight. His only weapons were his hands, and he grinned as he told his audience how ‘•I biff him one two three on ’id jaw and he run.” Nearly drowned, he managed tc reach the boat, and was pulled in. bleeding from a series of wounds that made his face look like a colander. The man’s story lias been corroborated. The Lig reef cod are very voracious, but this is the first time in Fiji one is known to have tried to swallow a man.