ABSTRACT
The Kaibarttani do not generally sell fish in the bazaars, or appear in public, but becoming widows they cannot remarry, and often join the wandering ‘Boistubis’.
The only curers of fish in Eastern Bengal are the Kaibarttas, the curing being carried on in November and December, when fish are most abundant. The fish-curers generally belong to Bijitpúr in Mymensingh, or to Báqirganj. Early in Novembar a piece of land is leased by the waterside, and the neighbouring fishermen are engaged to bring the proper kind, the small ‘Potí’, or ‘Po ]ntí’, fish. The fish is first of all placed between mats, and trodden, under foot, and then slowly dried in the sun, no salt being used. This nasty, and often putrid, mess is exported to those districts where fish are not procurable during the cold season. In Mymensingh larger fish are gutted, dried in the sun, and, without the addition of any brine, buried in pits. At the beginning of the rains, when fresh fish are not procurable, this ‘Sukhtí’, as it is called, is dug up, put on board boats, and transported to Silhet and Kachhár, where it is esteemed a great delicacy, and is retailed by the resident Kaibarttas in the distant villages of the interior.
