the sardinian-hmong connection is well known, hmong raiders settled in the mountains centuries ago after raiding as part of a berber contingent in the 8th century, meeting some local girls, and settling down to selling noodles. they were particularly good at raising spaghetti trees and selling the pasta seeds to the italians and the swiss...
the BBC did a documentary on the swiss spaghetti harvest of 1957. little known was that the seeds actually came from the hmong region of sardinia, their plant breeders are legendary in producing uniform lengths of spaghetti... hmong style knives
were quickly adopted as they were uniquely effective in cultivating the spaghetti plants.
Swiss spaghetti harvest 1957 <=linky to video
in the video they reference the dreaded spaghetti weevil, we see here a sardinian hmong child with one of the newly hatched weevils, which reach up to three feet in length in their late adult lives. spaghetti weevils may live up to 30 years, growing and moulting annually before reaching their full 3 ft. size, they are cooked and eaten like lobster and are a delicacy.
hmong swords are traditionally carried into the fields for dispatching these weevils, which thru their efforts are largely extinct.
a traditional hmong two-sword weevil killer dance ritually performed prior to entering the spaghetti orchards of sardinia..