VISITORS FROM OVER THE SEA 2O3 



knife. With a groan combining strength and fury he cut the 

 fins off at their bases, followed with the tail and then the 

 head (at this point every muscle and a series of groans were 

 used). Then he opened the belly (if the beast was a big one 

 he had to stop here, almost exhausted and covered with 

 sweat; an assistant would give him a new knife and the 

 original was sharpened by a boy on a special stone). With 

 the shark gutted, the Yemenite would carefully extract the 

 precious liver and place it safely on one side. Then he 

 finished off the carcass, cutting it into blocks. These were 

 then put into the chest and would be highly esteemed by the 

 Massawans as 'slices of select fish'. The fins, on the other 

 hand, would be dried and sent off with the first cargo for 

 China (for the famous soup) . 



To do the whole job, and I timed him with a watch, the 

 diabolical Yemenite took thirteen minutes on a grey shark 

 measuring seven feet and weighing about three hundred- 

 weight. Any one of us using the same slicer (with which we 

 should immediately have amputated a hand or five toes at 

 least) would have taken an hour. 



The fishing tackle of the Yemenites were the hook and line 

 and a cudgel. The hooks were straight and the same size as 

 our tunny hooks. Rough-looking as they were, they did 

 their job perfectly. We made a present to them of some of 

 ours and they were delighted. 



We saw the cudgel in action on the great day when we 

 decided to go out fishing with them. 



In the first light of day two Yemenites crossed the beach. One 

 of them carried a small circular net and the other had a 

 basket. Suddenly the first one caught sight of a shoal of 



