"INAGUA IS A QUEER LITTLE ISLAND" 57 



sweeps of their flippers into the deeper water beyond the reef. 



*'Dey eat de grass," Thomas informed me, indicating the 

 sea weed. 



By this time Coleman had discovered us and came dashing 

 down through the palmettos. 



It was a jolly reunion. He had not expected to see me again 

 for a number of days and had set about salvaging all he could. 

 Time and time again, he had gone out to the wreck and fought 

 his way inside to return with a load of tins and other materials. 

 He looked tired and weary and I noticed that his fingers were 

 wrinkled and drawn, like those of washerwomen, from being 

 in the water all day. His face and neck were burned a fiery red 

 from the glare and his shoulders sagged as he walked. But a con- 

 siderable pile on the beach showed the results of his efforts. I 

 introduced Thomas and David and then Ophelia who had 

 walked up the beach preferring the needle sharp rocks to the 

 boat which she said "made her stomach jumble." 



By this time it was growing dark and Ophelia set about 

 preparing a fire on a patch of sand between two thickets of 

 mangroves. She asked if we cared to have her cook anything. 

 We gave her some cans from the beach and some flour that was 

 sealed in a watertight tank that we had had made for holding 

 specimens. She wanted the flour for bread but we were won- 

 dering how she was going to make it with neither utensils nor 

 oven. We then received our first lesson in island living. 



She took a handkerchief full of the flour down to a flat rock 

 on the very edge of the lagoon. There she dabbled sea water 

 on it, kneading it the while until the dough was of the proper 

 consistency. We watched, fascinated. The sea water gave the 

 necessary salt, she said. I wondered how many isopods and 

 copepods, with which the water's edge was teeming, were 

 mixed with the dough, but said nothing. Satisfied that the mass 

 was in proper shape, Ophelia returned to the fire, which by this 



