Fishing - Chamorro Fish Hook ( Haguet )

The ancient people of the Marianas used a number of methods for taking fish and were skilled at fishing in both shallow and deep water. Fish could be caught in the shallows as found in Apra Harbor using weirs (Gigao), channels that would guide fish into fish traps or channel the fish into areas where they could be gathered by net, spear or by hand. Chamorros also used several types of nets as well as fish hooks, hand lines and lures.   

From artifacts found we know that fish hooks (Haguet) could come in a “J”, “L” or “V” shape and could be made from sea shell, turtle shell, and bone. Some hooks consisted of two separate parts, the shaft and the tip. I made this 1.5 inch hook from mahogany wood, deer bone and pago bark fiber.  

The Coconut - Cracking and Grating

Growing up in the Rocky Mountains, we really didn't know much about coconuts. Occasionally mom would bring one home from the grocery store and it always generated a certain amount of excitement in our home. It was exotic and even a little mysterious. Opening the coconut was as much fun as munching on the juicy white meat. At this time we didn't have YouTube or Google and frankly had no idea how to open a coconut.

First, Dad would bring out the electrical extension cord and the drill to make holes in the top of the coconut and pour out the water. Next it was time to open the nut. We tried using a hammer but usually picked up a saw to very laboriously cut the coconut open. I can tell you now that is not the easiest way to open a coconut.

As I mentioned before, buying coconuts can sometimes be hit or miss. In choosing a coconut, it is important to shake it and listen for liquid sloshing around inside. No liquid, no good. If there is no coconut water you'll know that the coconut is probably old and could be rancid.

You'll know if a coconut is older if the three 'eyes' of the coconut are not dark brown. The coconut water inside is not coconut milk. Getting milk from the coconut is a totally different process that I will talk about in another posting. Here we're just going to talk about grating a coconut.

Now in choosing a coconut from the grocery store, once you've looked at the eyes, shaken it to feel and hear the water inside, well from there it's somewhat open to chance. Coconuts are typically not expensive and since there's no set season in which coconuts are considered ripe or fresh, they are usually available year round.


Growing up we never used coconut in cooking nor did we make coconut milk or coconut oil, we just ate the meat. Now I use coconut for cooking and if you've read the Chicken Keleguen Recipe posting, you know that fresh grated coconut gives Keleguen that special flavor.

When buying a coconut from the grocery store you must first remove the loose fiber. This will reduce the amount of crumbs and loose fibers that fall into the bowl when you grate the coconut.


OPENING A COCONUT: Once you've cleaned the outside of the coconut, removing loose fibers, take the coconut in one hand and using a large kitchen knife, strike the coconut at the center, rotating it frequently in your hand and continuing to strike it around its middle.

 

Your coconut should split evenly in the middle. With practice you can split the coconut without loosing the juice from the inside. It is important to taste this juice. The coconut water should be slightly sweet and savory. The meat should be thick and white. Eat a small piece. You know it's good if it's not rancid or oily. This coconut was a miss.

 



When picking this coconut off the shelf it had plenty of liquid inside but it was so old the flesh had separated from the shell and grew mold. Good thing I had picked up more than one.

 

Now for grating the coconut we use a Kumyu (pronounced: come-zoo). A kumyu is simply nothing more than a serrated scraper typically mounted to a small stool.

 

I have mine mounted to a board that I sit on to hold it secure while I grate my coconut.

 

Here are three types of kumyu. I picked up the one on the left from the local Asian store but not every neighborhood has an Asian store and not all Asian stores have kumyu. The middle one is a hand made kumyu, probably from one of the pre-WWII blacksmiths on Guam and the one on the right is a modern tool.

 

So, what do you do if you don't have one of these tools. Well as you know, my being a "make do with what you have" kind of person I have a solution. Now a kumyu is a simple yet effective tool for grating coconut and can be made using simple tools and what you probably have around the house. I took an old bamboo (hardwood will work too) cooking spoon and using my pocket knife and a file, made an effective kumyu.

 



 

I trimmed the wooden spoon and as you can see, because the material was a little thick, beveled the edge. Next, using a file/rasp cut serrations long the edge of the spoon.

 



 

Finally, I mounted the wooden kumyu onto a small board, as I mentioned to sit on as a means to secure the tool I was able to make a workable kumyu in about thirty minutes.

 



 

 

Now, when you grate your coconut, place a large bowl underneath the kumyu to catch the grated meat and beginning along the edge of the coconut, begin scraping the inside of the coconut against the kumyu. It takes practice but it is one of the best ways to grate coconut. Work the coconut over the kumyu evenly until you've taken all the meat out careful not to scrape too deep.

 

 

Now you're grating coconut like a real Chamorro and have what you need for a variety of Chamorro dishes including coconut candy. Yum! I think I know what I can do for my next posting.

 

I took some of this coconut and added it to Chicken Keleguen but the rest will be used for coconut candy, another Chamorro delicacy. 

 

Slings From Around The World - Balearic Islands of Spain

The Balearic Slinger

The sling has played a significant role in the history of the Balearic Islands of Spain. It would be impossible to discuss the history of slinging without including the history of the Balearic Islands and it is fitting to make reference to the Balearic slingers. It is interesting to me that the very word, “Balearic”, means, literally, “Master of Throwing”. Like the Chamorro warrior, the slingers from the Balearic Islands were introduced to the world of slinging at birth. Slinging is so en grained into the Balearic culture that they still have routine competitions today.

Like the slings of the Marianas, Balearic slings were made from local materials, primarily an Agave-type of plant similar to the Yucca of the American Southwest.

This sling was made from your garden variety of sisal and is reinforced at the pouch with leather. I used buckskin for this sling but any soft and strong leather, goat for example would work fine.

Slingstones from Around The World - Part One

The most commonly thrown slingstone is, well, it's stone. Smooth round or oval stones are preferred. If you remember your Sunday School lessons, young David chose five smooth stones before he faced Goliath.

Just like with most weapons, as time went on the weapon became more sophisticated through trial and error.

The most efficient slingstones were 'biconical' or football shaped and the Chamorro people pecked and ground their slingstones from local materials, stone, hard fossilized coral, limestone and fire hardened clay. Other cultures, the Greeks and the Romans cast sling bullets from lead. Now there are volumes of information written on weapons of ancient times and I won't go into detail here except to say that besides Chamorro slingstones, sling bullets made of lead are superior to anything you might pick up off the ground and load into the pouch of your sling.

As I mentioned before, slingers form a global community and the mold I used to make these lead slingstones was given to me from my Che'lu from Transylvania. These bullets are  3 ounces each. The sling I made for these slingstones is woven from Chinese jute fiber and by comparison, is a very small and narrow sling design perfect for throwing lead.

With Chamorro slingstones I can easily reach 130 yards. It means that with my Acho'Atupat, you can throw from the end zone of a football field through the uprights on the opposite end of the field. With lead, a distance shot will be increased by another 50 yard meaning one can throw a lead sling bullet through the goal post and up into the stadium seats on the opposite end. If you've never thrown lead, it is a premium ammo worth the time and effort.

Palm Fiber Chamorro Sling

It wasn't that long ago when I thought that the only slingers in the world were me, my dad and an occasional Arab protester as seen on CNN. In the last two years I've learned that the sling has been and continues to be used all around the world.

Slinging has also put me in touch with some great people from all over the world. I recently made a trade of a few slings for raw palm fiber from which I made this Chamorro sling.

To me this palm fiber is like a cross between Pandanus and Pago fiber. It's soft long leaves lay like fresh Pandanus when you're weaving it, but it's stronger and makes a fine and very fluid thowing sling.



Finadene Recipe

Just like any good Chamorro meal, no blog about Guam would be complete without talking about Finadene. How to describe it... Some web-based recipe sites call Finadene a 'hot sauce' while others call Finadene a condiment. The only thing I know is that I love it and wonder what did I ever do without it. Now days our meals are almost never without it.

Essentially Finadene (also fina dene) is a salty/sour and spicy all-purpose condiment and/or marinade, and while there are several different varieties Finadene is made of soy sauce, lemon juice or vinegar, chopped onions and chili.

Now like with so many culturally significant recipes, local ingredients make the dish the best, living so far away from Guam and with somewhat limited resources, one must make do with what is available.

Finadene is often eaten over rice, pork, chicken, fish, vegetables... about the only things I haven't poured it over is icecream but don't believe that I haven't considered it.

What you will need:

• Soy Sauce, AND
• Vinegar, OR - White vinegar or apple vinegar. Apple vinegar gives your Finadene a really great flavor. Coconut vinegar is good if you can find it and best when you're eating fish.
• Calamansi, a locally grown citris fruit on Guam. I've never been able to find calamansi in my local grocer store but have found frozen calamansi juice in the neighborhood Asian market, OR,
• Lemons are a good and readily available alternative (no limes), even lemon powder will do in a pinch
• Onions - We usually use yellow or especially green onion, AND
• Chili - Boonie Peppers (donie sali) are the best but again, fresh peppers are not readily available in the Rocky Mountains but Thai peppers are a suitable alternative and in a pinch, dried and crushed red pepper will work. One word of caution, habanero peppers, while hot give Finadene an odd taste and should be avoided.

What to do:
Like most of my recipes, measurements can be somewhat relative and I always adjust to taste. Keep in mind that with Finadene, your finished dish should not be too salty or too sour and how spicy you want it is up to your own taste.

First chop your onion. The onion should be chopped, not minced and you'll need about a third to half a cup.

Second, if you're using Thai Pepers, roast them first. I use the stove but sometimes use a small flame. Other chilis can be roasted too. Roasting the pepers gives a good flavor to the finished dish.

Crushing the peppers will yield the most flavor and heat. 

If you've never seen Boonie Peppers, they are very small and very hot. I was able to bring some back home with me from my last trip home and keep them in the freezer. For dried and crushed red pepper, you will need about a teaspoon full, more or less depending on your heat tollerance.

Third, sqeeze one or two lemons and pour into the bowl holding your chopped onions. Drop your peppers in and using a fork, squeeze the chili and onions to get the most flavor out of them.

If  you're not using calamansi or lemon, use white or apple vinegar. Start off with a third cup or so. 

Fourth, pour in the Soy Sauce. Now comes the question of how much. The best way to describe it is, pour in the soy sauce a little at a time, mixing as you pour until the mixture is the color of a good cup of coffee. Then taste. If your Finadene is too salty, pour in more lemon juice or vinegar. If your Finadene is too sour, pour in more Soy Sauce. Again, it is mixed to taste. Exact measurements of your ingredients are not important and the best way to make Finadene is to taste and adjust as necessary to your liking. It is important to keep trying until you get it right. As I have mentioned before, I am Chamorro by marriage but so far everyone who has tasted my Finadene say that it is really good.  

Now the dark Finadene is usually best served with pork, chicken, venison, elk or beef. For fish, use the same basic recipe of onions, pepper and vinegar but instead of using Soy Sauce, use regular table salt.



Old Meets New for Today's Chamorro Warrior

Most of the slings I make are Chamorro with some other Pacific Islander slings sprinkled in. Occasionally I add embelishments or use different braiding techniques but by and large, if the pouch is not made with five strands of five cords a piece with a wrist anchor, it is something else.

Here I've created several different designs, all within the spirit of the original Chamorro sling, only adding individual style.

Keeping with this practice I've taken the original design, this one here with natural fibers in the original design, no additional weaving and made a modern version from 550 parachute cord.

Close up of the Chamorro 550 Warrior Sling.

I use a finger loop as my anchor when I sling but it seems that wrist anchors were often, if not exclusively used by Chamorro Slingers. Here is a how the wrist anchor is used. The loose end of the wrist loop comes down the center of the palm then between the fingers of the throwing hand. You can alter or change which fingers your anchor cord comes through.



The Ring Sling / The Eye

Been working on a few new ideas. This sling I am calling the Ring Sling or maybe The Eye Sling.

There's nothing particularly remarkable about the design. Unfortunately the ring doesn't give the the sling any special powers but it's unique and I like where it's going.

The front and back of the first one. This one is still a work in progress and now sits with the other unfinished projects or the one's I got bored with waiting for me to come back to it.

The second has been adopted and is heading to a nice home in the Swiss Alps.

Pago Slings

On my latest trip to Guam I learned that pago (Wild Hibiscus) bark is one of the preferred fibers for making rope. I want to elaborate more on this topic later but since it's been a while since my last posting I am going to make this short. As I mentioned before my phone, which is my camera was damaged by seawater and all my good photos were lost so I can't show in pictures my adventures in gathering and processing pago.

What I was told was that pago is resistant to seawater and infact, pago fibers should first be cured in the sea before they are used because they actually become stronger through the process of curing with salt water.

Unfortunately because of time constraints I was unable to adequately cure the pago I cut from the jungle in salt water before hanging it to dry before packing it up to bring back to the Mainland. In fact, the pago was still damp when I packed it and fortuantely it passed through customs and since January has been drying out on my porch.

When we were in Guam, I had the opportunity to view the only surviving Chamorro sling from ancient times known to be in existance.

Up until then I had only seen the sling in pictures. Naturally I assumed based off of the slingstone artifacts I had seen that the sling was of average size. What I learned was that the sling was much larger and the stone shown in its pouch was about the size of a potato or typical dinner roll. The size of the sling gave me much needed insight into its construction. I had always assumed that the sling was constructed using a five-strand braid but upon close inspection, the number of strands used is not five. I've been working on reproducing the exact braid and have come very close but there still seems to be something not quite right about the finished product.

The curator of the displays at the Governor's complex was very helpful and told us that the sling was believed to be made of coconut fiber. In examining the sling it was obvious to me that the sling was not made of the fiber from the husk and probably not from the palm leaves either. When I asked he said that it was theorized that the fiber came from the trunk of the coconut tree. I plan on testing that theory. In the mean time my personal theory is that the sling is not made of husk fiber and definately not from pandanus. Pandanus seems good for matting and for baskets but for a sling it tears apart too easily. I know this from making a number of slings from pandanus and it is definately not durable enough to hold together for a sling. So, my current theory is pago.

Armed with that theory, I hit the jungles of Yigo and collected pago.

I was only able to soak the pago in salt water for a short while before hanging it out to dry. With the humid climate of Guam it took quite a while.

Before leaving Guam I was able to weave one sling using the pago I had collected.

Another important fact learned was that the Chamorro sling likely had a wrist loop rather than the smaller finger loop. This makes sense because to sling large stones, the finger loop would not be practicle. Too much stress on the finger and the wrist loop is much more comfortable for slinging  heavy stone.
More to come....

New Slings

I have a new batch of slings I'm sending back home. If you happen by The Che'Lu Store in the Chamorro Village in Agana, drop on in and one of them can be yours.

These slings are variations of Chamorro sling where I have incorporated a little weaving into the pouch. Everyone of these have been test fired and work great!

The History of the Chamorro Sling

I was about eight years old when my father made me my first sling and taught me how to use it. All of my uncles used to sling and my Dad and I still take the slings out now and again. Even though I didn’t always use one, I have always carried a sling wrapped around my hat with a perfect stone wrapped in the pouch especially when I was in the woods.

On my first trip to Guam I met Jose, the owner of The Che’Lu Store in the Chamorro village. While looking at all of the interesting items on display in his shop I saw a fiber sling tucked in the corner of one of the display cases and asked to see it. Jose seemed a little surprised that I knew what it was and I spent the next few hours talking to Jose about Chamorro history and culture and he taught me about the cultural significance of the sling. I didn’t know at the time but the Guam Seal is in the shape of a slingstone. I had my sling with me as always and before I left Guam I gave Jose my sling and took with me a renewed appreciation for the sling and its significance to the Chamorro people. I have been supplying Jose with slings ever since.

I’ve always made my slings out of leather. I didn’t know at the time that the sling had been used by so many cultures around the world and that they were made of all kinds of natural animal and plant materials. For example, of all the artifacts found in King Tut’s tomb, the golden pieces were the most fantastic but also laid with the boy king was a sling made of a flaxen material. So, since then I have been making slings from nearly any kind of material I can find.

In my research I have come across the only known example of the kind of sling made by the ancient people of Guam. Until this last trip I have only seen this sling in pictures. This sling resides in the Guam Museum but today there is no natural history museum on Guam, at least not yet. I don’t know now whether they have broken ground yet but a new museum is going to be built.

On my most recent trip to Guam, fortune did shine on me. In our search to find a public exhibit of Chamorro culture we came across a small display of artifacts at the Governor’s complex (the Latte Stone of Freedom) in Agana. There, inside one of the display cases was the only remaining Chamorro sling from the ancient era. The caretaker was most helpful and told us that the sling had been found during an excavation. Now normally, with the tropical climate of Guam, organic articles, those made of coconut, pandanus, palm etc would have disintegrated but this sling was found intact.

As I had mentioned, before this last trip, I had only seen this sling in pictures and based off of those images reproduced the same style of sling I call the Chamorro Sling.

I assumed that the sling was average in size much like any other sling. The original sling was much larger than I thought with a sling stone that was about the size of a large potato and instead of a finger loop, a loop large enough to go around the wrist was of special interest to me. Of course the size of this sling gave me an opportunity to study its construction in detail and the photos I took gave me great insight into how the sling was made. 

According to the curator the sling was found below a layer of charred remains of a dwelling and it is believed that this layer of charcoal aided in preserving the sling as well as several other woven articles found in the immediate area. I don’t know anything about that but was glad that the one item I really wanted to see was not in the island’s archive awaiting the construction of the new museum.

During my last trip I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time exploring and crafting and with being inspired by the real article I fashioned a sling using materials gathered there on Guam, but that's another story.

The Flying Proa - Chamorro Galaide

The Galaide was a smaller version of the Proa — a type of outrigger canoe with a single masted lanteen sail made of palm fronds used in the Marianas Islands 3,000 years ago. The Galaide was primarily utilized by the Chamorro people for fishing and transport around the island as opposed to the larger Proa or Sakram that was used more for inter-island travel and trade.

The first European reference to the Galaide goes back to when Ferdinand Magellan came upon Guam in 1521. A Francisco Alvos entry in his log book from that voyage notes that "...many small sails approached the ship sailing so swiftly they appeared to be flying." An account from the 1566 voyage of the San Geronimo under the command of Pedro Sanchez Pericon also speaks to the swiftness of Chamorro voyaging canoes and the agility of the voyagers by some accounts they traveled at or above 20 mile per hour which would have made them the fastest vessels in the world at that time.

By the end of the seventeenth century, contact and eventual settlement on Guam by Spanish colonialists and missionaries led to the near decimation of the indigenous Chamorro people through introduced diseases and warfare. In an effort to further demobilize and control the Chamorros, the Spanish government prohibited the construction and use of the Sakman and Galaide by locals. This led to the eventual decline of the construction and loss of the intricate engineering details of these swift, ocean-going canoes that had so fascinated the first visiting Europeans.

There are several groups on Guam and elsewhere who are working to reconnect with the seafaring past of the Chamorro people.

While in Guam, I was fortunate enough to run into a few members of TASA while hanging out near Ypau Beach. TASA: Traditions Affirming our Seafaring Ancestry. When we arrived at TASAs place there in the park, a few members were pulling in a small galaide the group had made.

Two things: One, being from the mountains what I know about sailing could fill a thimble and Two, being a slinger I was more interested in the materials used to make rope and bindings to build these amazing vessels so my new found friend Vicente was kind enough to introduce me to Pago (Wild Hibiscus) bark. Long straight limbs of Pagu which is very light but at the same time very strong was used for various parts of the mast and outrigger assemblies of the galaide. The bark of the wild hibiscus or pago is strong and the preferred fiber for making rope. Interestingly enough it is resistant to and said to be even stronger when exposed to salt water. I’ll talk more about pago and sling making later.

I was impressed and inspired by the craftsmanship of TASA and before leaving Guam I found a galaide model kit at the Che’lu Store in the Chamorro Village. It took a while to whittle down the pieces to get the best fit but it makes a nice addition to my office.

When you are in Guam, please seek out TASA members down at Ypau Beach. If you’re lucky, you may even get to take a ride in the bay on one of these beautiful hand-made boats.  

EDIT: I knew I didn't have the rigging just right and still probably not entirely accurate but here is the Galaide rerigged.

These small sailboats were not sailed conventionally, especially in turning the way most sail boats are piloted. They do not tack.

Another visitor, Woodes Rogers in 1711, said:

The Governor presented us with one of their flying prows, which I shall describe here because of the oddness of it. The Spaniards told me it would run twenty leagues per hour, which I think too large; but by what I saw they may run twenty miles or more in the time, for when they viewed our ships, they passed by us like a bird flying. These prows are about thirty foot long, not above two broad, and about three deep. They have but one mast which stands in the middle, with a mat sail, made in the form of a ship’s paddle to steer her, so that when they go about, they don’t turn the boat as we do to bring the wind on the other side, but only change the sail, so that the Jack and sheet of the sail are used alike. The boat’s head and stern are the same, only they change them, as occasion requires, to sail either way. For they are so narrow that they could not bear any sail, were it not for booms that run out from the windward side, fastened to a a large log shaped like a boat, and nearly half as long, which becomes contiguous to the boat. On these booms a stage is made above the water on a level with the side of the boat, upon which they carry goods or passengers.

They were called “flying proas” because of their speed, and possessed three technological innovations which made this label well deserved:
• Their hull was asymmetrical to counter the drag of the outrigger float.
• Chamorros used triangular sails to increase speed and allow for a closer sail to the wind.
• The proas tacked by moving the sail from one end of the canoe to the other. This is called shunting and is done because the outrigger float must always be to windward.

So fast were these vessels that one voyage from Guam to Manila reportedly took only four days, which means they traveled more than twenty miles per hour.

These canoes were vital to the survival of Chamorros because they facilitated transport and trade amongst islands and allowed them to fish beyond the reef.

Ancient Chamorros had at least six types of canoes: sakman, leklek, duding, duduli, panga and galaide. The sakman was the largest and most impressive, regularly measuring more than forty feet, some reportedly holding a hundred men, and ideal for long voyages and deep sea fishing. Leklek, duding and duduli were smaller vessels for shorter voyages. The panga is a duduli without a sail. The galaide, also without a sail, is also a small vessel. Both the panga and galaide were used within the reef.

Canoe construction and navigation were considered men’s tasks, and most likely specialized to a select few. The learning of these skills were either passed down from father to son, or a part of a young man’s education in the guma’uritao or men’s houses.

rerigged.
The