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METHODS OF FISHING
But
of all, the Polynesians, both male and female, adhere most closely to
the old way. Most of them will not even use a stone to assist the
descent, and they probably reach greater depths than the naked divers
of any other sea. Travellers report that, at a coral atoll in the
Southern Pacific owned by the French government and known as Hikuereu,
where the natives of Tahiti and other islands flock during the season
to fish for pearls, the boys and girls and women are almost as expert
as the men.
Whole
families congregate here, remaining during the season housed in huts
framed of light cocoanut palms roofed with leaves. These they bring
with them, some coming several hundred miles. The shells are mostly in
sixty to seventy feet of water; some however are brought from a depth
of one hundred feet. It is reported that a boy, on an exhibition dive,
remained under water for two minutes and forty seconds, going to a
depth of a little over one hundred feet. He was in sight all the time,
the water being so transparent that he could be seen on the bottom,
leisurely selecting pieces of coral for the officers of the ship above.
These divers
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