42 



LIFE; IN ITS LOWER FORMS. 



account of the singular method the Greeks, inhabitants of 

 the island, have to get their living. In the bottom of the 

 sea the common Sponge is found in abundance, and more 

 than in any other place in the Mediterranean. The 

 inhabitants make it a trade to fish up this Sponge, by which 

 they get a living far from contemptible, as their goods 

 are always w r anted by the Turks, who use an incredible 

 number of Sponges at their bathings and washings. A 

 girl in this island is not permitted by her relations to marry 

 before she has brought up a certain quantity of Sponges, 

 and before she can give a proof of her agility by taking 

 them from a certain depth." * In other islands the same 

 custom prevails, but with reversed application, as in 

 Nicarus, where the father of a marriageable daughter be- 

 stows her on the best diver among her suitors, — "He that 

 can stay longest in the water, and gather the most Sponges, 

 marries the maid." t 



In fact, the employment seems to be common to both 

 sexes and all ages. Savary, describing a little insular de- 

 pendence of Rhodes, named Syme, observes as follows : — 

 " The Sponges which grow around this isle are the only 

 resource of the inhabitants. Men, women, and children, 

 all learn to dive. All must seek beneath the w T aters the 

 only patrimony which nature has left them. The men 

 excel all in this dangerous art. They precipitate them- 

 selves into the sea, and descend to an enormous depth. 

 Often they do violence to themselves in retaining their 

 breath too long, and on emerging vomit a mouthful of 

 blood. At other times they run the risk of being devoured 



* Voyages in the Levant (1766), 175. 

 t Pomet's Hist, of Drugs, v. 102. 



