METHODS OF FISHING
many
of them between the Red Sea and Ceylon. At the last fishing in the Gulf
of Manaar there were about forty-five hundred. Their dress during the
time of the fishing consists of a loin cloth only. They have many
hereditary and class superstitions, chief of which is their faith in
shark-charmers. While waiting for the fishing to begin they also seek
to get from the fates an inkling of the luck which will attend them.
One common method is by breaking a cocoanut on the diving stone; the
more clean and even the break, the better the luck.
The
mortality among divers at the fisheries is not great in Asiatic waters.
Pneumonia is the greatest scourge, fatalities in diving being few. It
is necessary however to select robust men for depths beyond forty feet;
comparatively few can work without injurious effects below that.
Some
curious mixtures of ancient days and present times, of the Pharaohs and
infant industries, are seen. One may see a black slave diver in the Red
Sea hanging over the edge of his boat taking observations through an
old tin kerosene can with a bit of glass in one end of
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