3o8 I N A G U A 



moon worships date far into the recesses of unrecorded history. 

 Many of the primitive peoples of today to whom the printed 

 page is an inexpHcable mystery have a keen appreciation of the 

 relationship of the tide to that orb and regulate their activities 

 accordingly. 



The flowing of a tide to anyone familiar with the sea, and 

 with the least grain of perception, is an impelling and inspiring 

 event. The tides of time are discernible only from a distance, 

 but the surging and falling of a sea tide is a potent and tangible 

 happening. Perhaps the inexorable character of a tide is its 

 impressive quality, but I think the emotional response to the 

 occurrence goes deeper than that. The newly formed embryo 

 of a human being bearing its telltale marks of ancient gill 

 clefts harks back to the time when our ancestors, no matter 

 how far removed, strove and battled fin and tail with the tide. 

 If you have never leaned over a ship's rail and watched the 

 soft swirl and eddy of the tide-urged water flowing past a 

 rudder you cannot fully appreciate what I mean. If you have, 

 and were at all aware, you will know that the sight of a moving 

 tide is a stimulating experience. 



Here at my typewriter, far from the flow of moving water, 

 the feel of a tide is a difficult emotion to catch and imprison on 

 a sheet of paper. If a tide boomed and crashed like the surf it 

 would not be so hard. But a tide is silent; it cannot be heard 

 except faintly when interrupted by a rudder or a ship's bow; 

 it cannot be smelled nor touched. A tide is best seen though it 

 is more readily sensed than visualized. Its very vastness makes 

 it difficult to grasp. In my mind's eye I see barren sand bars 

 lying idle in the sun with fiddler crabs moving about, or boats 

 lying on their bellies in the sand; I picture seaweeds traiHng 

 toward the mouth of a river or whirlpools eddying about a 

 buoy and I say "this is a tide." But it is not. These are only 

 small manifestations of a tide. A complete tide is a stupendous 



