Evening star., 1926-09-12

raiders While the rest keep watch
on the shore for possible vengeance,
the native divers slip over the other
side of the ship and presently return
with net full of plunder. They are
child. ike in their glee when they sue
ceed in making an unohserved raid.
These NAKED divers are magnificent
specimens, who would gladden. the
heart of A sculptor. To make their
dive they grasp heavy weight or
stone and dive straight down. armed
with a knife and equipped with a
small net. The knife is to cut
the most immediate need. The net
is to carry their haul.
4 X
7 REMEMBER the first time saw
one go ove~. | was certain he was
drowned. for he stayed under water
for n fun five minutes. | imagined
all things for him, attacks by FISH.
cramp, iost in the rOcks-oh, thou
sand things. And then he bobbed up
again. smiling.
They are trained carefully and
they inherit their profession. Fami-
lies continue the trade, so there may
be some additional capacity inherited.
They have nasty moments, however.
There are many dangers, not the
least of which Is the octopus.
Our divers. however, generally win
out against the octopus. In fact they
raid him. and | have frequently seen
them at work hunting for octopus.
which when caught is a considerable
delicacy, according to their way of
thinking.
Occasionally, too. they revert to
the strangest fishing imaginable.
There are fish that live in the cram
nies of the submerged rocks. The
native diver scorns to use rod or line
or net in their pursuit. He simply
dives overheard. visits the fish in his
habitat and catches him by tickling
him.
The people OF the island had their
own sense of humor. Nothing pleased
them so much az to see men In diff
Guilty. and occasionally they were not
above playing a too practical joke
on us
During a little Of the time we We're
held up by overstrong currents. bad
weather and difficulty in following the
location of the submerged city. so we
had hunted around for other traces of
submarine ruins. We were told that
at certain spot. where the coast is
very rugged and the rocks are eX-
ceedinGly sharp. some divers had re-
ported ruins. We made a prelimi-
nary examination of the coast and
what we found justified us in putting
some ,redence in the report We
therefore decided to go down.
The passage was 40 narrow, how
ever. that we could not take our big
ger boats, and had to work with one
boat equipped with AN auxiliary
motor. Everything went well. in the
beginning Our man was down, and
stayed down for quite while. There
We're assuring tugs on the lifeline
and we hoped all was well.
Hut the man began to carry more
line than we liked. and we thought Of
moving over to him. 1t is not the
most comfortable thing in the world
to have man working at the bottom
Of the sea under ones orders. | have
never yet become accustomed to the
sense of apprehension.
Just as we had up-anchored to reach
the man. a sudden gust caught us and
We were slowed around. The gust was
only a preliminary, for the next few
moments found us battling with a
heavy sGuall and with a murderous
current. We tried to start the motor
avd head into both waves and wind.
cut the motor was cold and refused to
start
Instead of pulling nearer to the
diver. we were driven farther away,
despite our frantic work at the great
oars. We were fighting two battles
for while there. and both went
against us. for we were driven onto
the rocks ultimately.
Our first care. naturally. was to get
n. l. 4 1.1. L.,
All can say How we contrived to
get him aboard it Ia Impossible to ex-
plain. All I can say Is that we did
and we got his helmet off.