THE DREAM SHIP 



41 



diver can bring up 150 kilos of shell in 

 a day, which means in the neighborhood 

 of 600 francs. 



DEAFNESS, PARALYSIS, AND IMPAIRED 

 VISION THE DIVER'S LOT 



And it is just these same nimble dollars 

 that tempt the Paumotan to abuse his 

 talents, even as others are tempted the 

 world over. For the sake of a few more 

 shells, another cluster a little farther 

 down, he remains below just that trifle 

 longer than is good for him, and in time 

 it tells. The eyes become bloodshot and 

 start from the head, he goes deaf, or 

 paralysis seizes him. 



"But the women are the worst," a sun- 

 baked trader informed me ; "the worst 

 or the best, as you like to put it," he 

 added grinning. "They'll go on till they 

 burst, or pretty near it. Bargain-counter 

 instinct, I guess. We call it the 'bends/ " 



"The 'bends'?" 



"Yes, one of 'em goes down, and down ; 

 sees some more shell a little lower, and 

 some more a little lower than that. Then 

 she's reaching out for one last flutter at 

 something like twenty fathoms when they 

 get her — the 'bends,' I mean. You can 

 see her fighting against them, but it's no 

 good ; they bring her knees to her chin, 

 and she can't straighten up, and she drops 

 the last lot of shell she's gathered, and 

 hates that worse than the 'bends.' ' 



"What does she do?" 



"Nothing, except lie there crumpled up 

 until her mate fetches her up and mas- 

 sages her back to life. Then she's no 

 sooner conscious than she's down again. 



HE SWIMS WHEN HE CAN NO LONGER 

 WALK 



"Water never kills this crowd ; it takes 

 dry land to do that. Why, there's a 

 diver close on fifty years old here, para- 

 lyzed clean down one side. He can't 

 walk, but he can swim. He gets them to 

 carry him down to the reef and heave 

 him in ; says it's the only place he can 

 get any comfort." 



"How about sharks?" I asked. 



"Oh, there are sharks all right, but 

 the diver's mate looks after that ; gives 

 the signal and they're all in after him 

 double quick." 



"Finish him off with knives, eh?" 



The sun-baked trader smiled reminis- 

 cently. 



"Well, hardly," he said. "A dead shark 

 makes a square meal for the others, and 

 that's all. What they need is an ex- 

 ample, and they get it. They're cruising 

 about sometimes when they come on one 

 of their number with no tail, one fin, and 

 sundry other decorations that wouldn't 

 exactly please the S. P. C. A. He is not 

 nice to look at, and they clear out of a 

 place where such things are possible. 



"When an island's thrown open for 

 pearling, we spend weeks mutilating 

 sharks before the divers'll go down, and 

 small blame to them, I say. Sharks are — 

 well, sharks." 



A PEARL RUSH IN THE PAUMOTUS 



The casual reader picks up a good deal 

 of information about "gold rushes" and 

 such like romantic undertakings from 

 the plethora of novels on the subject; but 

 who has ever heard of a "pearl rush"? 

 Yet they occur every year in the Pau- 

 motus. 



The group belongs to the French, and 

 is administered from the local seat of 

 government at Papeete, Tahiti. Here a 

 heterogeneous collection of humanity 

 awaits the opening of the pearling season 

 like a hovering cloud of mosquitos. 



There are pearl buyers from Paris and 

 London, representatives of shell-buying 

 concerns from Europe and America ; 

 British, Chinese, and Indian traders, 

 speculative schooner skippers and super- 

 cargoes, not to mention the riffraff of the 

 beaches, all intent on pickings from the 

 most prolific pearling islands in the South 

 Pacific. 



And this is the law of the group — in- 

 fringed, circumvented, broken, but still 

 the law — that although under French 

 Government, the Paumotus and all they 

 produce belong to the Paumotans. 



FRANCE PROTECTS THE NATIVE DIVERS 



Still further to protect the native, div- 

 ing apparatus is banned throughout the 

 group. The oyster, as he brings it from 

 the water, is the diver's property. He 

 must open the shell aboard his canoe be- 

 fore touching land, remove the flesh, and, 

 after testing it for pearls (usually by 

 kneading it so thoroughly between finger 



