OCR Text |
Show GREEK -3IRL SPONGE DIVER8. ; .. . Globe Trfttter Vrltes Enthusiastically of Expert Hlmla Maidens. "Wo wero cruising In tho Mediterranean Mediter-ranean In tho late full," srdd n globe trotter, "and on n golden afternoon wo stopped bcsldo n littlo licet of spongo divers. Nearly nude, tho divers sat on tho edgo of tho boat. They held big stones thnt would help them descend. One nt n tlmo thoy lnhnlod three or tour long breaths, nnd then plunged with their grent stones Into tho blue wator. Ono boat interested us; Its divers seemed so graceful ami young. We drow noarer, nnd, by Jove, tho divers woro nil girls. "They wero young Orcek' girls from Hlmla, an Island near Rhodes, it seems that lu Hlmla tho spongo diving div-ing Is carried on by girls altogether. Theso girls seemed very export, "Thlr dark 1 air knotted on their elmrc!y Nm '" reclined on tha eun-warmod '"' ti : t' ei.' tr-rPtamo. Thon, graceful ns stage dances, they loaped overboard, nnd in the seaa dim green depths tuggud at tho blac'.t spongo growths. "Tho captain said the Hlmla girls woro not permitted to marry tilt thoy had brought up n certain quantity of siionges from n certain specified depths |