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beatrice grimshaw : penrhyn islanders, 1907 |
Open Library
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7002704M/In_the_strange_South_seas
They are reckless
and daring to a degree, notable even among Pacific Islanders.
Any Penrhyn man
will attack a shark single-handed in its own element, and kill it with
the big knife he usually carries.
They are, beyond
comparison, the finest swimmers in the world ; it is almost impossible
to drown a Penrhyn Islander.
He will swim
all day as easily as he will walk.
You may often
meet him out fishing, miles from shore, without a boat, pushing in front
of him a small plank that carries his bait, lines, and catch.
Some of the fish
he most fancies seldom come to the surface.
To catch these
he baits his line, dives, and swims about underneath the water for a minute
or two at a time, trailing the bait after him, and rising to the surface
as often as a fish takes it.
Of his pearl-diving
exploits I shall speak later.
The deadly surf
that breaks upon the outer reef has no terrors for him.
Among the small
boys of the island there is a favourite feat known as "crossing a hundred
waves," which consists in diving through ninety-nine great rollers, just
as they are about to break, and rushing triumphantly to shore on the back
of the hundredth.
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In the Strange South Seas Hutchinson & Co., London,1907. Open Library
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