FANIHI : THINGS I REMEMBER, THINGS I JUST LEARNED

In 1985, on a trip to Saipan, I ate part of this fanihi.  I was a young friar all of 23 years of age.

You can't see much of the fanihi; it was mostly eaten by the time we snapped this photo.

I remember...

• how AWFUL it smelled when my aunties would cook it
• it smelled like they were cooking mildewy clothing that had been soaking in putrid water for days
• the smell made me want to run out of the house
• I refused to try it as a kid and began to doubt my relatives' soundness of mind because they enjoyed eating it
• the rat-like face and sharp teeth staring at me from the pot didn't help
• then I tried it - in 1985 - in Saipan - and thought it tasted OK
• it tasted NOTHING like it smelled
• as the saying goes, "It tasted sorta like chicken."

What I have just learned...

• between 1975 and 1981, the Northern Marianas exported 15,805 fanihi to Guam
• what the Northern Marianas ate within the Commonwealth is not included in that number!
• a lot of those fanihi were caught outside the legal times to hunt them
• fanihi can fly between the islands
• we hope that fanihi colonies in the unpopulated or underpopulated islands in the Marianas will help them survive

From the year 1831...

• John Lyell, a visiting Scottish doctor on a whaling ship during the years 1830 and 1831, says that the jungles of Guam swarm with fanihi
• they come out at dusk to feast on breadfruit
• they are prized by the Chamorros and sell for 3 reales each
• a real was a Spanish silver coin, worth an 8th of a peso, and a peso was equivalent to about 50 American cents
• so 3 reales was not a huge amount, about 19 cents
• they were so numerous that 200 could be seen hanging from the same tree, and one sling shot could kill 17 of them

coinquest.com

A 4 reales coin from 1812, a little more than what one fanihi would have cost in the year 1830.  These coins would have been used in the Marianas at the time.