TRADES OF THE ISLANDS 365 



old head are two beautiful ear stones that look like 

 pearls. They are on the top of the head, each about 

 an inch long and half an inch wide. The fishermen — 

 these Itahans and Portuguese — don't know what they 

 are; but the tourists buy them for good-luck stones, 

 and four mount up into a fancy pair of sleeve-buttons. 

 "Sometimes you find things you don't want to, but 

 not often. Once I found a wreck. A lumber schooner 

 came in, but the sea tossed her up so high the men 

 got ashore without wetting their feet. The rarest 

 thing I 've found was a ribbon fish. This one was 

 nearly thirty feet long; but a Mexican had cut it all 

 up before I got there, and about ruined it. He simply 

 ruined a hundred dollars, for I could have got that for 

 it, and more too, in good condition. Did you ever 

 notice," asked the old man, "that in all the sea-serpent 

 stories there is a 'mane'? Well, the fish had a red 

 mane, red fins or plumes (the most beautiful fish I 

 ever saw) about a foot wide, silvery, slashed with 

 bars of black; yet that feller cut off the mane." 



