Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/116

92 "Most of the diving for clams is done by the women," said the guide, while Fred was gazing at the huge shell, nearly two feet long, which lay before him, "Many a woman, and many a man too," continued the guide, "has been nipped by the shell and drowned there, totally unable to escape. In all parts of the South Pacific you will hear horrible stories of death in this way. These clams grow to a great size, as you see; half a shell often serves as a bath-tub for a child, and in the Catholic churches of Polynesia it is used for holy water.

"Some years ago a native in the Paumotan Islands was diving for pearl-oysters, and while feeling around for them accidentally thrust his hand inside a gaping clam-shell, which closed on him instantly. The shell was in a hole in the coral, so that he could not reach the back to detach it; the only thing he could do was to sever his fingers with the knife in his free hand. He thus saved himself from being drowned, but was maimed for life."

The guide called the attention of the youths to some large eels which were coiled up in the coral. He said they were very voracious, and many natives had been deprived of fingers by these uncanny creatures. They sometimes reach a length of eight or ten feet, and one poor fellow had the whole calf of a leg bitten off by one of them.

Then there are a great many cuttle-fish, and sometimes the girls and women are caught and overpowered by them. The danger from these creatures is so well known that the natives rarely go out alone to dive for them or for clams. Some of the cuttle-fish measure six feet across; they lie in holes in the coral, and throw out their long arms to grasp anything that comes in their reach. They cling around the body of a diver or wrap themselves about his head, and unless speedily relieved by his companions his death is inevitable.