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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



HHHHHHHHHHHBHIHHHH 



Photograph by Ralph Stock 

 A PEARL DIVER PREPARING FOR A DESCENT 



and thumb as to crush the life out of it), 

 throw it back into the lagoon to propa- 

 gate its species. Should lie find a pearl, 

 it is his also. 



It is then up to the cloud of mosquitos 

 before mentioned to get both shell and 

 pearl out of him as best it can. One can 

 imagine the buzzing and biting that en- 

 sues. 



From the buyer's point of view, the 

 sooner and the deeper he gets a good 

 diver into his debt the better. lie then 

 has some hold. Consequently he spoon- 

 feeds his selected divers like the infants 

 thai they are. Tinned delicacies of all 

 sorts, Prince Albert suits of unbelievable 

 thickness and cut, silk socks, and stock- 

 ings are a good diver's for the asking, 



during the closed sea- 

 son. 



With shell at $ i, ooo 

 a ton in Philadelphia 

 (the largest consumer 

 at the present time) 

 and pearls soaring to 

 apparently limitless 

 heights, all will be 

 well when work starts. 

 And the diver? 

 From long experience 

 of mosquitos, he is 

 by no means slow. 

 Shortly before the 

 season opens he is 

 presented with a bill 

 that would cause most 

 of us to register apo- 

 plexy. He looks at 

 it, grins, and proceeds 

 to dive. He also pro- 

 ceeds to make caches 

 of shell on the floor 

 of the lagoon, only 

 bringing up half of 

 what he collects in 

 payment of his debts. 

 At night he retrieves 

 his cache and sells for 

 cash to the smaller 

 mosquitos who infest 

 the beach. 



As for pearls, from 

 the moment the diver's 

 finger and thumb en- 

 counter foreign mat- 

 ter in the flesh of the 

 oyster, he becomes 

 about as communicative on the subject as 

 his catch. Should the truth leak out, his 

 find will promptly be confiscated in pay- 

 ment of his everlasting debts, or the wily 

 pearl-buyer will use threats of exposure 

 to reduce the price. 



No, the diver, if he is up to snuff, 

 will work his passage to Papeete on a 

 schooner, sell to a Chinaman, who neither 

 asks questions nor tells tales, and pro- 

 ceed to enjoy himself according to his 

 lights. 



Blossoming into a Prince Albert suit, 

 a red tie, and silk socks, he will hire a 

 car, load it up with lady friends and 

 execrable rum, and vanish into thin air 

 for a fortnight, at the end of which time 

 he has somehow contrived to get rid of 



