A new book based on interviews with elderly hunters and trappers shows what a change there has been both in the number of birds that migrate over Malta, as well as in people’s attitudes towards them.
Kif dieb il-gemiem: Rakkonti dwar kaċċa u nsib mill-passat, by ornithologist Natalino Fenech, contains interviews with more than 50 hunters and trappers, a few of whom are still alive.
The late Gużeppi Mangion iċ-Ċwellu, born in 1906, whose lament about the disappearance of turtle doves provided the title of the book.“When an 85-year-old from Mellieħa speaks to you about the number of turtle doves they used to see, you’d think they used to live on another planet,” Dr Fenech said.
“Up to the 1960s, trappers would catch dozens of doves a day between sunrise and 7am and then go to work. Their tally at the end of the season used to range from a few hundred to over a thousand birds.
“But a recurring theme you inevitably hear from old timers is that their fathers recalled their grandfathers saying the number of turtle doves they saw was declining.”
If an 85-year-old from Mellieħaspeaks to you about the number of turtle doves they used to see, you’d think they lived on another planet
The title of the book, in dialect, was borrowed from the late Gużeppi Mangion, iċ-Ċwellu, from Wardija. Gużeppi was born in 1906 and lived in the area known as tal-ħanaq. The name originated from the large flocks of turtle doves that suffocated the place during their migration.
Dr Fenech said: “As a child, Gużeppi would look up to the sky, see large swarms of birds and be afraid, as he thought the end of the world was near, because it seemed some catastrophe was driving the birds. During the course of that conversation, he said: ‘Kif dieb il-gemiem! Min kellu jgħidli li se jiġi fix-xejn fi żmienna?’ Meaning, ‘How turtle doves have vanished! Who would have told me that turtle doves were going to disappear in our lifetime?’
A huntress from Lija“And I told him that he had just given me the title for the book.”
The book chronicles a way of life when hunting and trapping were an essential part of social life in Malta.
“Today, meat is taken for granted, but up to the early 1960s, hunting and trapping were a way of putting meat on the table. On reading such stories, some hunters today say they would prefer to have lived then. But it is a past which very often people know little about.
“They were times of hunger, hard manual labour, lack of sanitary and other facilities, the absence of comfort, choice, free time, education. Virtually the absence of everything that makes living good.
“Today, very few realise why many preferred to trap rather than shoot. It was not only more economical to trap turtle doves because more could be caught, but more importantly because what was caught alive could be fattened and consumed during the year, while what was shot had to be consumed on the day or the following day, because fridges were uncommon and freezers practically non-existent,” he said.
The book has plenty of anecdotes, about the jokes hunters used to play on each other or the way they went about their business. A well-to-do hunter used to place gold pound coins on top of a framed painting of St Joseph at home during the year. He would save them to give them to his wife before he went to Mellieħa for three weeks to hunt in April. One morning, she was dusting the frame and a gold florin fell. She touched the frame and another fell. With tears in her eyes she told her husband that St Joseph was giving them money!
Dr Fenech said he wanted to document an essential part of life in Malta in the first three quarters of the 20th century through the eyes of those who lived it. “These people are getting fewer every day, and I wanted to make sure their memories were preserved, as they would otherwise vanish. Just like the flock of turtle doves they once saw,” he said.
The book contains over a hundred photos, some dating to the early 1900s. It was published by Klabb Kotba Maltin with the help of the Malta Book Fund.