CHAPTER IX 



THE FISHMEN 



MAN'S first penetrations of the sea were confined 

 to wadings, dives and underwater swimming in 

 shallow waters. His first boats — hollowed-out 

 tree trunks — were used on rivers, and countless centuries 

 passed before any attempts were made to cross the 

 world's seas, for they were regions which early man, in 

 his imagination, peopled with dragons, centaurs, venge- 

 ful deities, and fabulous beasts of all kinds. The sea itself 

 was often personified as a monster, vested with enormous 

 powers of destruction, and subject to fits of anger and 

 sullen treachery — a being to be propitiated and never 

 offended by undue curiosity regarding its fearsome 

 secrets. 



Sponges were certainly among the very first creatures 

 of the sea which attracted primitive man into the shore- 

 waters, and they were probably among the first artificial 

 aids used in his diving ventures. It may be difficult to 

 realize that the sponge was one of the primitive, crude 

 progenitors of the bathyscaphe, but such was un- 

 doubtedly the case. 



A stone held in the hand was probably the very first 

 ''diving appliance" ; one which was used by the divers of 

 Greece countless centuries later (as noted in the last 

 chapter) and is still used today by uncivilized peoples. 

 But a sponge held in the mouth was also a very early 

 device to assist submarine exploration.* It was a step 



♦Several old writers say that sponge-divers were able to use the air trapped in 

 the sponge. A modern author suggests that the diver bit the sponge when under 

 water, and that this released oil which calmed and cleared the water around him. 



154 



