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Ali Fulhu goes fishing A chapter from Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu by Abdullah Sadiq translation by Maldives Culture editors
'To build a boat, first we need a crew of fishermen,' said Ali. 'You must find strong young men; the sort of men whose bodies make a copper 'ting' sound when they're flicked on the stomach. Bring me nineteen hard-boned, strong-blooded young men.' Black Ahmed went out and checked the island wards, and found eighteen young men of the calibre his son described. Then he added Hulhudheli Captain Bulhaa Dhonfuthu as the nineteenth man. This man knew the sea and had the intelligence to bring out the best in the crew. All the men met in Black Ahmed's house and he told them, 'I want you to go fishing with my beloved precious son.' 'Brother Black Ahmed, Ali Fulhu can't even drag a skipjack tuna from the sea, so I'm afraid there's no way we can take him fishing,' said the captain. The proud father opened a box and gave each man a handful of gold nuggets. The captain said that they would go out fishing every day even if Ali caught nothing. The boy was introduced to the crew. They all went to sleep after dinner, but Ali woke up and opened a book on propitious astrology where he read that if the boat was launched at the time when Leo is in the mid-heavens, then the full wealth of the sea will come dancing towards the boat. He closed the book, returned it to the box, locked it and went back to sleep. Well before dawn he went into the boatshed and sprinkled some soot. Observing an auspicious hour he wiped the soot brush on the odi and then told the crew there to finish applying the dust, and he went home. When they had finished painting the odi, Ali returned and took an incense burner and added some red-hot coals. Then he broke a piece of ambergris and placed it on the embers. Boarding the odi, he recited praises to the Prophet and prayers for wealth and success. He made a fanditha to remove any chance of misfortune on the odi, and they pushed and launched it into the sea. The required rigging was taken aboard, a coconut wood mast erected and a set of oars put in place. With the main sail loaded, the odi was ready for mooring. Ali told the captain to anchor it securely and bring the baitfish mince on board. Then he went home to get a little more sleep. Later when the crewmen arrived and the baitfish net was loaded, Ali gave the order to man the oars and the vessel was gliding away from Hulhudheli. The captain looked at the sea and said, 'I can't believe my eyes! There's a solid mass of baitfish! Drop one anchor on the deep side, and another at the shallow end.' As soon as the light fell on the water, some fish mince was dissolved into the sea. The fingerlings, large and small, came sniffing as if they were going to eat the gunwales and the outer planks on the deck edge. The small ones glared and stared, and the big ones did the same. Long poles were tied onto the net before it was dropped into the sea. The net stretched out under water and the four edges of the net were tightened as it emerged. The baitfish raan-raaned all over the net. The captain scooped the fingerlings into the odi, until the net could be tipped in, and the poles untied. The net was folded away and the anchors raised at each end of the boat. The stays were tied to the yard, and with a rhythmic cry of aadhalhoa-baadhalhoa the sail lifted to the parral. With the side-stays secured, the boom was set and pushed into the clew of the sail. The stay rope ends were gathered and hung from their hooks, and crew tied down the cords at the base of the sail. The sea washed along the edge of the boat as it began to push through the water with gathering speed. As they came out of the atoll and into the ocean, a school of fish appeared in the distance where the black terns hovered. As the odi sailed among the fish, Ali Fulhu called out to the captain, 'Throw a single scoop of bait in the sea.' Straight away the man rolled up his sarong into a g-string and stepped down into the heyvaiy hold. He threw some baitfish into the water. Goodness! Fish began to jump after the fingerlings and towards the odi. The captain emptied the heyvaiy of bait, and moved up into the maavaiy hold. He cleaned out the bait in the two dhippathuvaiy holds and then he shouted, 'That's the end of our precious baitfish!' Ali moved afore and found a short fishing rod, then he came back to the stern deck. 'Pack the fish neatly,' he shouted, and they arranged all the fish as Ali hauled tuna aboard. Later, the crew reorganised the gear at the bow and headed towards the island. Fully laden, the odi carried fifteen hundred fish and soon it was moored in Hulhudheli harbour. Black Ahmed arrived as his son landed and said, 'Well, did you manage to drag any fish from the sea?' 'Yes, about fifteen hundred of them, as a matter of fact! The odi was too small!' After distributing the fish they went home to eat, and when the men returned, Black Ahmed said, 'If you are taking catches like that, we should bring the carpenters from Dhiggaru to build a proper fishing dhoani.' So the fishing gear was removed from the odi and they went home to wash and eat again. Next they intended to sail to Dhiggaru. |
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Maldives Culture is an independent internet magazine of Maldivian cultural issues.
Editors and translators: Michael O'Shea and Fareesha Abdulla, Australia
We invite contributions from Maldivians and others interested in Maldives.
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