Marlon Vickerman, Gleaner Writer

Whether it's prepared with baked beans, ackee, cabbage, or even by itself, one thing is for certain, most Jamaicans are madly in love with saltfish. But the next time you rush home from school or work because your grandmother told you she will be preparing your favourite saltfish dish, stop and think for a second, why is it that you've never seen the head of this fish? Or, why is it that nobody you know has ever seen it?

Martha Thorpe, a great-grandmother, in all her 102 years and counting, has never seen the head of this fish. Neither did her parents.

"I never see the head of the saltfish from mi deh a world. Is only hear mi hear people talking about it," she said. "Mi father does tell me that him hear it nuh pretty though, it too ugly to come here so dem chop it off outta sea. Him tell mi that people seh if him see it, him would stop eating saltfish."

One person claiming to have had better luck than Martha, is Maurice, a photographer from Portmore in St. Catherine. He says a friend showed him a picture of the head of the saltfish. However, he was unable to verify exactly where his 'friend' got the picture.

'A di devil dat'

"Yow my yute, a di devil dat, yuh hear me. Mi nah eat saltfish again!" he exclaimed. "Mi deh a work and mi bredrin bring de picture come show me. The thing look crawny, like it all have hair on it. The eyes not even look like fish eyes, it just look scary mi yute. Mi nuh waan dat fi eat again."

"The fish head nuh look like a normal fish head, it look like is a man. Is probably dem thing deh country people see and call dem mermaid," he added.

There are various rumours floating around out there about the looks of this fish from the shoulders up, or gills, or whatever it is that they have. One line of detail is consistent throughout the speculations however, and that's that it is no sight for sore eyes. So ugly it is said to be, that it would stop the most avid saltfish lover from ever taking another bite.

Junior Mitchell is a fisherman who has been driving terror into the hearts of fish, big and small, for well over 20 years. The discoloration of his dreadlocks brings some merit to this story. However, not even this man of the waters has ever seen the head of a saltfish.

"Mi see nuff fish inna my lifetime, miles out at sea mi go fish, but mi neva see a saltfish head yet, and a from mi a bwoy mi a ketch fish. I always hear dat it ugly though, and that if you see it you wouldn't eat anymore of it," the Rastafarian fisherman said.

Marketing

Another Rastafarian, 'Tiger', a craftsman and friend of Mitchell, said that he knows that saltfish is the result of dried and cured codfish, but even then, still wondered why the head had to be severed. This leads to a speculation made by a fellow writer, that perhaps the head of the codfish got 'mutated' during the curing process, and had to be chopped off so as to not affect the sale of the product. Who knows?

Reports on the Internet are that in recent times, over-fishing has resulted in a depletion of the number of codfish in some areas. As a result, other fish are being marketed as 'salted codfish', even Beluga Whales. Not so sure how true that is, but please, do have a look at those whales.

Maybe it's all just an eerie folktale, a mystery, as some put it, regarding the details of the saltfish. And, as is usually the case, more gruesome distortions got added to that tale as it passed on from each generation, making it the monster that it is today. However, old folks have a saying: "Wha nuh go so, almost go so."