Observations on Divers. 619 



Greek seas, I had reason to think that the people who in- 

 habit their shores must be practised in all the exercises of 

 swimming. From very high antiquity indeed, the skill of 

 the Greek divers has been in great repute. Herodotus relates 

 that Scyllias of Scione, the most expert diver of his age, wish- 

 ing to pass from the coast of Greece, plunged into the sea at 

 Aphetae, and landed at Artemisium. He thus swam a distance 

 of 80 stadia; but, as the translator of the celebrated historian 

 judiciously suggests, it is, doubtless, the short stadium of 50 

 fathoms by which the computation must be made. This will 

 give a league and a half, and a little more than one eighth ; a 

 passage of considerable length for a swimmer on the sur- 

 face, and which it would be impossible to accomplish under 

 water. 



In the Peloponnesian war, the Greek divers had abundant 

 opportunity to manifest their skill. Thucydides relates that, 

 during the siege of Sphacteria by the Athenians, divers were 

 employed to carry food to Pylos. This they effected by 

 swimming under water, and drawing after them, by means of 

 a cord, bladders filled with provisions. The same historian 

 states that, at the siege of Syracuse, the Athenian divers 

 plunged into the water, for the purpose of sawing away the 

 piles which the Syracusans had driven to impede the approach 

 of the ships. 



Lastly, Anacharsis [Is Anacharsis taken here for a real 

 person ?], during his stay at Delos, frequently saw the cele- 

 brated divers of that island dash into the sea, and, after seek- 

 ing its lowest depths, repose quietly on its surface. 



At a more recent date, the traveller Thevenot speaks of 

 the inhabitants of the Isle of Micaria, one of the Sporades, 

 as very expert in swimming, and making it their employment 

 to fetch the sponges from the bottom of the sea, and even the 

 wrecks of vessels. He asserts that, in this island, no girl will 

 marry a young man who is not known to have been, at least, 

 eight fathoms under water, and to have brought thence 

 some proof of the fact. " When," says he, " a very rich 

 personage has a mind to marry his daughter, he announces 

 the day on which he will give her to the best swimmer. On 

 the day appointed, the young men strip themselves in public, 

 and plunge into the water; and he who remains longest 

 beneath the surface espouses the girl. Whimsical as this 

 custom may appear, it is sufficiently indicative of the high 

 importance which these islanders attach to swimming." 



Some years since, when stationed in the roads of Navarin, 

 I was enabled to convince myself that the modern Greeks are 

 as expert in the art of swimming as their ancestors, and that, 



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