It a hot summer’s day, am sitting under the shade of the fig tree impatiently waiting for my share of crab and dough, boiling away in the big iron pot just a few feet away. You have never had a true Bahamian dietary delight until you have some crab and dough. Like Bahamian singer Ronnie Butler said “you gatty get some a dat.” Translation is you must have some of that. Yum, Yum good. But I digress. Before enjoying this savory dish you should enjoy the adventure of catching the native land crab. Scary looking but if handled correctly, quite easy to manage. Chile, you can’t dare call yourself a true, true Cat Islander if you have not been out catching crab.
Hummm! Let’s delved into the adventure of crab catching.As a preteen, crab catching could have been likened to a social event. Crab catching was done during the raining season, that’s when the crabs came from underground and can be found everywhere. The black crabs inland and the white crabs in swampy areas.
Catching crabs were done mainly at night. So at dusk, we would begin our preparations. First by preparing lights to see our way in the darkness. Lights were made by pouring kerosene oil in an empty soda bottle where an old rag was twisted and push down in to absorb the oil then lit with a match. The oldest clothes and shoes were put on, for some no shoes at all. Straw hats on head, old rice sacks over the shoulder and our little rag-tag bunch would be on our merry way. Each house passed, one or two more would join until there was little crowd headed out of town following along like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Once out of town, the fun would begin. Sneaking into corn fields, raiding sugar cane patches, digging sweet up potatoes and cassava for roasting and eating while we sat around the fire until it got dark. Telling old folk stories, teasing each other about who had a crush on who. Laughing our heads off at how much fruits or crop we got. See we did not consider it stealing. It was just mischief. You see, a few years before we would not have entered any field that had a strange looking bottle fill with odd looking material hanging from a tree.We were told if you ate anything from that field your stomach will swell up really big like a pregnant woman each time there was high tide. It would stay that way until low tide.That scared us to death. As we grew older we realize it was just a ploy to keep us from raiding the farmers’ fields and enjoying the fruits of their hard labour, as we were doing just then. Yep! Crazy, wonderful innocence of the time. Then, as complete darkness descended it was time to light the bottles and begin looking for crabs.
There were unwritten codes, buddy system and rules. We lined up on the narrow dirt road. No one rushed to the front, the first person to catch a crab simply went to the back of the line. If someone went too far into the bushes the person in back of them, patiently waited for the individual to come back out. If person’s light went out you helped them to get it relight. Crabs are caught by approaching it from the back staying away from the claws. They are held down with a big stick or by your feet. Careful now you don’t want to crush the back or it will die quickly before you can get it home. On a good night, we would all hang around until everyone’s sack was full. The sack was placed on the head to be carried home. The straw hats kept the crabs from biting through the sack to your scalp.
Well by now you would realize that that returning home quietly would not be the order of the day. More mischief would naturally follow the way back. We just had to disturb old Mr. Thompson’s sleep. We would all run down past his house then hunch in the bushes. Two persons would sneak back climb his fruit trees and pick as many guinep from his tree as possible. One would run back and hide with the group while the other shook the tree as hard as possible. As expected, out Mr. Thompson would come stick in hand to thrash the daylight out of whoever was in his quinep tree. But no one would be there. There we go, bags on head, giggling along, sharing our ill -gotten gain. Well, there you have it Tinkerwee’s adventures in crab catching Cat Island Bahamas.
You must let Smiling Pat teach you the art of catching crab. You must visit Mary’s Crab Shack, Zonicle Hill where you can sample, some delicious crab and dough and her Bahamas famous stuffed crabs. Ya must get some a dat.
Land crab emerging from its hole after rain.
Correct way to hold crabs to avoid those claws.
Guinep fruit
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