People Who Live on the Sea.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 284, 25 July 1888, Page 3

People Who Live on the Sea.

Tut, Siamese spend three-fourths of their c.xistcnco in tho watot 1 . The first acb on awakening: is to batho ; they batho at eleven o'clock, they bathe again at three, and batho again abont sunset ; there is seaLcely an hour in the day when bathers 1 may not be seen in all the creeks, even the | shallowest and muddiest. Boys go to play in the river just as the poor English childlen ero to play n tho street. 1 once paw a Siamese woman sitting on tho lower step of a landing place, while, by a giullo, sho held in the water her infant of a few months old, splashing- and kicking about with evident enjoyment. Were not these people expert swimmers, many lives would be lo&t, for the tide ilows so swiftly that it needs tho greatest skill and care to prevent boats running foul of ono another, and of courso they are frequently up«ot. On one occasion our boat (an Englishbuilt gig) ran down a small native canoe containing a woman and two children. In an instant they were all capsized and disappeaied. We were greatly alarmed, and one of us was on tho point ot jumping in to their rescue when they bobbed up, and tho lady, with the lirst broth she iccovered, poured forth a round volley of abu^e. Thus relieved in her mind, she coolly ligh ed her canoe — which had been floating bottom upwards — ladled out some of the water, and bundled in her two children, who had been meanwhile; composedly swimming around her, regarding with mingled fear and cuiiosity the barbarians who had occasioned the mishap.