930 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



These are the most famous divers in Europe, and are 

 likely, from their physical structure, sobriety of life, and 

 constant practice, to carry their art as far as possible. 



But a recent visitor says : " There was a move on 

 deck, the signal flag rose slowly upwards, the Union-Jack 

 fluttered in the morning breeze, and just as it touched the 

 masthead a thousand divers, with their stones and nets, 

 plunged silently in the sea. I shall not easily forget the 

 sensation I experienced when I saw the crowd of human 

 beings sink, as by magic, in the depths below, leaving 

 but a few bubbles to mark their downward path : I pulled 

 out my watch, a minute elapsed, and not one of all the 

 thousand appeared ; a minute and a quarter, a minute 

 and a half, three-quarters, two minutes, still not a 

 soul arose to the surface. I dreaded some fearful cala- 

 mity. Two minutes and a quarter had flown ; the drops 

 of perspiration gathered thickly on my forehead ; my hands 

 trembled so that I could scarcely hold my watch. I turned 

 to the Adapanaar the head-man of the district, in his ten- 

 oared cutter, in which I stood in an agony of anxiety, but 

 he was sitting calm and quiet as an oyster, How gladly 

 my heart beat when I saw, first a dozen heads and shoul- 

 ders, then fifty, then five hundred and more, ascend to the 

 surface, bubbling and spluttering, as they well might, after 

 such a submarine excursion. 



" The old shark charmer had stationed himself from the 

 commencement of the diving on the stern of his boat, 

 which was in the centre of the fleet ; occasionally he mut- 

 tered a charm, flourishing his long arms about in his 

 accustomed manner ; but at intervals he descended to sip 

 something from a cocoa-nut shell bottle. At one of these 

 times loud cries arose of ' The shark ! the shark !' A poor 

 diver, lacerated grievously by the monster, was dragged 



