BECHE-DE-MER 167 



hair of the mermaid of to-day is coarse, short and spiky, 

 with inches between each sprout. For a comb she uses a 

 jagged rock, or cruel coral ; for her vanity there is no 

 semblance of pardon ; and for her seductive plaint, has it 

 not degenerated into a gulping unmelodious sigh, as she 

 fills her capacious lungs with atmospheric air ? 



BECHE-DE-MER 



Anticipating the possibility of readers away from the 

 Coral Sea, and to whom no reference to the subject is 

 available, wondering as to the form and character of beche- 

 de-mer, let it be said that the commonest kind in these 

 waters is an enormous slug, varying from 6 inches long by 

 an inch and a half in diameter, to 3 feet 6 inches by 4 inches. 

 Rough and repulsive in appearance, and sluggish in habit, it 

 has great power of contractibility. It may assume a dumpy 

 oval shape, and again drag out its slow length until it 

 resembles an attenuated German sausage, black in colour. 

 Its " face " may be obtruded and withdrawn at pleasure, or 

 rather will, for what creature could have pleasure in a face 

 like a ravelled mop. 



Termed also trepang, sea cucumber, sea slug, cotton 

 spinner, and known scientifically as Holothuridae, no less 

 than twenty varieties have been described and are 

 identified by popular and technical titles. 



The "fish" are collected by black boys on the coral 

 reefs dived for, picked up with spears from punts, or by 

 hand in shallow water. Some prefer to fish at high-water, 

 for then the beche-de-mer are less shy, and emerge from 

 nooks in the rocks and coral, and in the limpid water on the 

 Barrier are readily seen at considerable depths. Then the 

 boys dive or dexterously secure the fish with their slender 

 but tough spears, 4 fathoms long. 



At the curing station (frequently on board the owner's 

 schooner or lugger) they are boiled, the fish supplying 

 nearly all the water for their own cooking. Then each is 



