228 ALONGSHORE iv 



thanking them most by placing all dependence 

 upon them. 



It was the beginning of a change in feeling: 

 the body was becoming, as it were, the sea's; a 

 public property, an institution; nobody's and 

 everybody's. Perhaps, now, it would never be seen 

 at all. Grim realistic jokes began to be made about 

 it; yet when a man was taxed with keeping quiet, 

 as likely as not he would reply: 'I was just think- 

 ing to meself about thic there chap. It don't let 

 a fellow rest, like, him riding about out there. 

 'Tis a wonder summut an't been see'd o'en. 'Tisn't 

 as if us had a-had a breeze for to drive 'en out to 

 sea. The crabs must ha' got he In among the 

 rocks.' 



*Ah ! you won't see nort o' he now, not till 'er 

 rises In the water after the seventh day. Men, 

 they says, rises face downwards — don' 'em? — an' 

 women face upwards. You'll see he when his 

 time comes.' 



A suggestion was made that if the Brixham- 

 men were allowed to trawl in the bay. . . . 



'They wouldn' bring 'en In, don't you make no 

 mistake about that. Certainly they catches dead 

 bodies In their trawls, an' a horrible state they'm 

 In, too, sometimes; but they don't take 'em into 



