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THE PEARL
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ago, had the best tender of that section in the person of his wife.
If
it is the diver's first plunge, his ears and head will be racked with
pain as he descends. This pain will leave him when he reaches bottom,
but on his return to the surface he will find his nose and ears
bleeding and will probably spit blood also. After this he will not
experience pain in diving, but in common with nearly all divers will
never be quite free from extreme irritability and bad temper while
below; he will also have gained the diver's ability to blow smoke
through the ears.
Diving
is injurious to the health and, if persisted in, produces deafness and
incipient paralysis. Few of the divers on the Australian coast now are
aborigines. Their antipathy to-the dress amounted in many cases to a
superstition, so as the fishing was pushed out to deeper waters and
the dress became a necessity, they were discarded with the old methods.
It is said that in the old times diving had a peculiar effect upon the
black-haired natives. By the end of the fishing season the color of
their hair became yellow though the natural hue returned later.
190
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