1955-02-05 — Page 8

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY- 5, ~1955.

HIDDEN MYSTERIES OF THE UNDERSEA JUNGLE

(4)

Nightmare Monster And The End Of A Legend

[HE natives along the

}}}

T

Sea coust

thought we were

mind. At first they

By JEAN FOUCHER CRETEAU

wouldn't have anything to The Red Sea natives thought Creteau and de with our plan to seek, to

film and catch that so-called his companions were

And you couldn't rally

blame them. Not if you ape knew that terrifying Tacle of a manta ray.

mad when they There Devil l the Deep--the wanted to catch a giant manta ray.

that this Devil of the giant manta ray.

a legend was Deep, which sometimes weighs up to three to the ocean tons, drags its victims

death. crushes there

it to bed and But Croteau and his friend Raymond Guerin like were to destroy that legend by actually battling a manta ray and coming out alive, This fourth instalment of his thrilling serial describes the terrific drama below the waters.

anything

It lies water

Weighing

10

three tons,

thes nightmare.

through

some

winged bomber.

over 24 feet,

delta- Sometimes

of

it

it has a "wing-sprend" Always

inouth maves with its vast

ever-ready wide sell, esgulf everything in path.

י!

its

Often several small pilot fish can be seen swimming

serenely and safely

within

the huge mouth? They are probably there for the same reason as the birds

perch inside

erneodiles, picking

rayed

femist

the teeth.

which

the inwa

of

out

from

het wern

natives

Insta

ix

The fear of the

understandable. They be

for

the giant

lieve that

this great

face and

way.

overturn

Osh

(2753

its

that

up

creatures.

Is liable to rise to the sur-

anwall ship or boat in

There is no doubt

many boat has been

though I do not think their

set by

these

attacks

vicious. are

A

more likely explanation

is

that the fish, by rubbing on

the boat, is trying to itself of irritating Bites which have battened on its back.

rid para-

->

the terrible death Badly even throes of the wounded glant in the depths beneath a sobering reflection.

After 20 minutes we have got back and are our own breath ready to dive again to put the

lunt cut of its misery.

Beneath us, out diere in the open yea, there are thousands And we know oi itot of water, ut sharks will try to rob us of our prey.

We have encountered sharks betare. We luve awum with

Back in the water, swimming at a depth of about 18 foot, look up and see Raymond being followed by a shark. I cannot warn

him of his danger, so scream with all my might.

The shark hesitates for

turns fail, moment and then

roles the Now

NOVOTECH. The shark becomes the quarry,

the

ΟΓΟ

with diver chasing after

him.

Surprisingly, not move quickly

fires. Raymond striking directly Rilis

Pandemoniumi

harpoon

William Hickey

THE MUSIC ENDS...THE BATTLE STILL RAGES

London. tion that is at loggerheads

Was a strange, but with Russin. rather wonderful, even-

ing of opera at the Stoll.

Take a girl-Drenka' Opalle-- from Belgrade met her at the Yugoslav Embassy--a Ano For this opera tells not house in Kensingt-during n

party in

In honour of the visiting It is the company.

Sho is very attractive. I can were there race of which the Yugo assure you she is also very in- important than that. She is a in their best gowns for the slavs, the Southern Slava, ligent. But she te much more bo- a compromise Yugo are part. It is the story of symbol of Arst night of the

man (ween the West and the East. the flight of Western

Drenka Opalle-you should slay opera,

against the East.

her pronounce

It was wonderful because in just one story. this dreary month many story of the whole Slav lovely women

And Lady Harewood and the Yugoslav Ambassador's wife, Madame Velebit, were two of the lovellest,

the shark does enough and

It was wonderful because the

dancers between the the singers and

put the whole of their Slav The wounded soul into Borodin's opera them and fought with them but beast twists and tums, fighting "Prince Igor,"

fate. Blood pours from its ever before have we disputed te with them a prize so precious as the giant manta slowly bleeding We the depths. todo wonder how the battle will go.

wound

FL wounded,

But it was strange

the crosses Strange to see

Reason for sorrow

.

The Russians were the seris of the Tertars for two or three centuries. The Yugoslavs were And in the slaves of the Turka.

of the this opera--this tale

Russian of a bailto

prince against the Tartars-you can age not only the history of Russia You in the past.

can see the Hussia of today.

soul of every man,

man

The eternal confllet of the sf This should

keep the other

against the

A conflict that is not Sharks happy for a while, and and banners of Christianity Astatic away from our mante. For by carried on to the stage by the West

this underwater the National Opera Com. just waged between men. But A s001 9 I am beneath the the laws of

bleeding pany of a Communist State, because of intermarriage, in the surface I see the first of them, jungle

Strange to hear the words sung in à Stav tongue that is at times so similar Russian that you would mistake the language.

a magnificent grey-blue speci- shark is the rightful prey of its men, swimming Imperiously to- fellows. warda mc. there

Above my houd

another, lying Just beneath the surface, watchung And down below there is a ma third, climbing gracefully in the company of two plot fat.

Kicking my legs violently in case there should be yet another bebind me-1 dare not look-1 se my camera in nelion.

my

After about a minute I have to surface for air. But I plunge again instantly and there is an- other shark, looking into cameru ilke a Alm star. He poses for a moment and then. to my great relief, sheers off vne side.

REMORA

A remorn.

DEATH

THROES

to

Back ahoarti the Latein, we Hoon cutch up with the buoy Strange to hear this opera which marks the pusillon of the of all operas sung by a na-

It is still moving, but the mobile creature must be nearing its end. Its struggles are be- coming feebje.

Again we picture the terrible agony, the death throes of a gant of the deep. I look at my see they are Companions, und Just as sad HT

am.

Then look at

native erow-ut expressions of amaze- ment almost of disbelief. For we have dared to attack the Klant manta ray, and we are still alive.

Our boat has not been cast on the rocks or averturned. None

Lo

be

Now I am being followed by of us has been dragged down

It is n ash about to

the

depths, there three toet long which has a enveloped and suffocated. All sucker on its bend by which it is quiet, And a legend has been attaches itself to a shark or any destroy. thing else which will carry through the water.

It

This remon seems to have taken a liking to me. I try to push it away but in the end 13 manages to fasten itself to

my swim to the surface,

flesh.

And only when I am being hauled aboard the Lucia does my affectionate but unwelcome companion part company with

Raymond Guerin set up a world record for underwater sport me. the

with the capture of this manta ray, weighing 1,000 pounds.

Another legend among natives is that the manta liable to cluich anchor hawwers horns on its head in the huge and drag small vessois out bu eco, dushing them to destruction on the coral reefs,

com-

and I hold my camera steady one of my Suddenly,

"Sharks!" and in front of me, Alming until the panions shouls,

ahood. points

Our heitsman, ray is only three yarda ahead Mohammed, extending his arms of me and all I can see through excitedly, tries to explain that my viewinder is the inside of again the ilkely ex-

its mouth. Again it zooms past the manta these are very big specimens, that

me at the last moment.

18

There planation

against the ray, by scraping bawsers, is trying to rid itself

At once we give the order for the engine of the Lucia to be of the sea ce which Infest its stopped and within seconds,

borns.

For a third

zalive

legend,

there is no basis of truth what- that the manta CVCT.

It is carries its human victiza to the sea-bed and there settles over greal suffocating him like clock.

AWE-INSPIRING

I would be the last to pour the natives for such beliefs. Harness, nl-

B00171 strange

on

certainly

creature.

an

.

soon

ns

1 A

am under the surface, 1 look around and can hardly believe my own eyes,

15 There, my right,

on enormous "bird," with two great wings, moving powerfully and ponderously up and down in the movements of flight.

From its head protrude two enormous antennac, Its mouth

I um

80

his gun and the harpoon flashes into a wide open gill.

mortally

Slowly, foot by foot, we haul in the nylon line. Soon the majestic manta is lying on the deck of the Lucia.

We rockon its weight at 1,000 pounds--a world record catch for underwater hunters,

(To be continued next Saturday).

(WORLD COPYRIGHT)

| POCKET CARTOON by OSBERT LANCASTER

and I hope Mr. Dulles clearly undermanda that, come what may, I'm knitting comforts for Chiang

Kai-shek.

по

To MEN: Don't bottle

As I heard the glorious music of the Polovtsian dances 1 felt a great sorrow for Russia. SoITON for a people that is still fighting wut in itself the battle: Is It on the side of the West or of the East?

The lesson

a struggle

that

can

It is

WC ap- only half English proeite. In our lands poised in the Atlantic we have never borne

of the brunt hordes.

think thai

to

anyone

Asiatic

I

who understand Itussla wants

"Prince to sue this ehould go

One learns more by the Igor." music, by the singing, by the dancing than one would learn in six months or more of reading.

gloriously And how

thesc Yugoslava aingi They have all the traditional Slav feeling. And the The Slav excitement Slay dignity,

Is one of the curses of our century that

50 many of the great qualities of the Slavs have been kept trom the world by a creed that satisfies more the Aslaite than the Western man in their race.

Bull, one must be thankful.

цго These Yugoslava

of the West. You can see It in the way their women and men walk and dress.

up your emotions

HAVE A GOOD CRY AND

38

men wept as easily instead of bottling up their emo

women

i

Opalitch-spoke English so well that I didn't guess at first that she was Yugoslav, She was dressed with an elegance that belonged to the West.

་

Her degree

I am glad to say that England can take some pride in Drenku. here soon after the She was

11 and took degree English at Birmingham Univers Bity.

war

But she couldn't be the person

she is just becauso of that. She

18 Yugoslav,

up

She has

been

the

brought

in a Communist And yet in all country. Important ways she belongs to the West.

So did the other Yugoslavs at the party The women - Sonia

Nevenka

example--were not

Kusti,

artesed.

Ridjin. for Just well- dressed

Wer They with a Western ciegance,

Now

So different

when

artists Russian cume here they. of course, are weil dressed. Even expensively

But they have

no

Gressed. cægance.

And yet I don't believe it is because Russian women have no dross sense. One of the most elegant women I have met was a woman who was brought up in Communist Russia and is now living in London.

It may seem a frivolous way of Judging a regime. But com~ paring Yugoslav and Russian of women does give you an idea the difference between the two In one. Communist countries, Bonta regard for Individuality and civilisation. In the other an iron discipline where fashion ià dangerous,

Perhaps what Rumia needs most is a Hartnell, or a Hardy Amics. The Russian Parliament ought to take the matter with Malenkov.

up

LIVE LONGER

By Chapman Pincher

that

the belief, but there is an alter- There seems to native theory.

between bo direct link

a

continue

types of demons is involved. The other decides where in a human body or in a building the demon Is hiding.

who got through Even men

When they have agreed on a the dangerous decades of 35 to diagnosis, they decide which type

outlived

by 65 are generally women of the spine age. Again of medieval ritual is needed to They gave instances where this may be due to the fact that cast out the domin while men tend to idle" when

their methods seemed to have

they retire, housewives paver their

succeeded ofter doctora hnd

stop

working,

I have already acted on the falled. doctor's hint that I should do

+

ΟΣ

Now it turns ond, like some weird space ship, dives directly

LIS, evident at

moving quicker than amazement and the

This time we do not despair of our crew, all of us before.

and it Wo dive walt for it. plunge overboard.

passes just over our heels,

Back It comes again. Is it still tions they might live much women of the sarne age. Now

I'm not certaintonger.

it is 62 percent higher. Between fricmily?

But

the ages of 65 and 5 it i now. I do not wait to see.

☐ situation,

That is the latest theory twice as high for men as for susceptibility to heart attack curiously, in such

wonder briefly what the

and the lack of physical exer- trying women. I

ciso caused by sedentary jobs. natives in the boat above must of doctors who are

are Doctors once thought think of this underwater game to find out why men

Thus Medical Research Coun- of "leg."

suffering so much more than women lived longer than their

that husbands mainly

found because men ell doctors have

The priests, who appeared Raymond and 1 are close to women from heart attacks, were more exposed to accidenta postmen are much less prone to

more physical exercise by welke before the Bub-Committee on non son and, enlarged kidney complaints,

heart attacks than telephonists, most amiable, though I believe by the magnification of the towards us again and at two and high blood pressure.

Palace, insisted Yet as more women have gone Conductors on London's double- ing instead of taking bases, by Exorcism and Demonology, at to work in factories their ex- decker busts, who have one of climbing stairs instead of riding Lambeth the manta Ty w be, it s water, seems large enough to yards' range, my companion fires

Their argument: awe - spring engulf a motor-Car.

these pectation of life compared with the most active jobs, suffer only. In lifts, and by doing mere giving their evidence in Latin. They explained that only -In "diredges of

half as many heart attacky uk gardening, civilisation" are men's has inoronsod, belleved to be

drivers.

been unable to that language could the com the result "of

But I have GO astonished, 50

I hold my breath. Maybe nervous tension Women

DIRECT LINK

bring myself to start shedding plicated classification of demons While most women that One of its tricks is to lie on fascinavod.

I forgot to

and other intricacies of their art this tension close my eyes for a second. This able to neutralise

tears even to save my heart. the surface of the sea, sunning operate my cine camera.

to lead an active lie in their

be exactly described, is it! Surely we cannot survive

UODENAL and stomach homes men are tending to make itself. In that position only the

"It was just as though we had tury of this of its wings and STRAIGHT AT ME! the

ulcers are extremities

now four times less and less physical effort at DEMONS MAKE YOU ILL

.........................................................*remuersize boen suddenly transported back "wounded benet.

commoner

become increasingly in jobs body are

to the 14th century," one obser- resemble the fins of a group of The monster is only three But when I care look again unmanly.

women. Half the patients ad mechanised. Many of the men AVIDENCE that many sharks. Only when trying to yards away and coming straight the manta is moving away, Result:

mitted to hospital with per- classed as working in heavy in people are really possessed ver mid.

now move nothing by demons which can be cast out. Later the priests translated steer their boats among these towards me. I have the im- flapping its wings wildly. The should relente itself naturally forated ulcers used to be young dustry

by medieval methode has been their statements into English for "sharks" do the native discover

pression that nothing an stop harpoon is sill embedded in the in tears acts inwardly on the women. Now they are nearly all heavier than a spanner.

to the Commission on the benefit of the commission given that that it is a fact, one enormous

me Boating down past those gặp-

It is the same story with the

Divine Healing

members who cannot understand fish.

ing jaws, past the hovering pilot gl and from it trails a white glandular system, causing grave

nylon rop: secured to a buoy damage to the blood vessels.

dangorous type of heart at- most

exert

Two Anglican priests who Latin on the surface. In à Bash the

The commission's investigation Whatever the Sometimes, particularly in the 6sh, ink, its stomach.

of tack oalled coronary thrombosis, themselves much in their space

down

and exorcising such into the power of faith

and Paciile, 60 or 100 mantas move

At the very last moment, when monster has plunged far down this theory there is no doubt The incidence is four times mo. The average time spent claim to be experts in tracking about together like a phantom I have given up all hope for into the depths, far out of sight, that women are being protected bigger for mon than women.

an strenuous games seems to be

week, demonis mid that their services prayer in healing is expected to way from WN

'arterics""" dat about half an

continue for two more years, armada.

insome mysterious Playfully

"hardened they op myself, the creature banks over We sear up to the surface and

The commission, set up by the All the evidenco may, even- two or three yards into the air, on one wing and, with a mighty clamber back aboard the Lucis, the dangaus "strces" disorders arteriosclerosis It la mono Mest men spend about five are often in demand

which are afflicting steadily than three times as bla.

hours of their leisure every day Archbishops of Canterbury and tually be published, but The

York," heard Can the male habit of re- sitting in chairs,

of the two Anglican how the priests names again the impact din be heard by me so closely that one wing- the jilling of such

priests, and some of the other several miles away.

tip almost beheads me. In fact, beast, Mỹ um always is to agad men.

In 1925 the death rate for sponsible for such differences?

One of them specialises in witnesses, are likely to be kept It is supposed that this leap my breathing, tube is torn from observe rather than to destroy,

There is much evidence from natural lacic of exercise

datzimining which of the many secret, But this time I console myself men between 45 and 35 was 16

to support upset the body's commomy, ing out of the water may not be my mouth by the movement, simply an expression of the sheer When I have gathered my wits with the thought that what we percent higher than that for animal experimente Joy of Living.

Possibly the again I realise that in those few tre killing now is not only a mantas use these tactics to stun seconds I have gone a long way manta but also a centuries-old

Legend the legend of slmals of small fish so that they towards proving at lost to me ferocity of the Devil of the can food one thom

the more own satisfaction-that the manta cally.

is not the menace he is made Doop.

visible,

and they

magnificent

by occasional outbursts of cry- ing. Men are denied this safety D valve because they are taught from boyhood that tears AYC

the strain which

truth

men.

in mon than

A survey has shown

mon do

not

hour

B

and when they strike the water swirling of the waier, passes I am not certain that I approve increasing number of midda grössing emotion really be re-Doctors think that this un- work as a team.

the

But even beneath the waves out to be, that the lemore in- WOUNDED GIANT the manta is a playful creature, quisitive than aggressive. Flapping its wings like a huge

This creature, I feel sure, has

The harpoon buoy, we notice

and graceful bird, it will per no evil intentions. I am more is rushing along the surface of form the most extraordinary certain than ever now that if the wor as though it i evolutions, sometimes looping boats are upset by hlm or propelled the-loop as neatly as any a dragged out to sca It must be the Our crew wolgh anchor and craft in the skies.

result of natural clumsiness. We set off in punsilk. It is a

Looking about

me I see that dangerous bindness because we Po it was

after a good deal of argument that we mesogod, Raymond, one of my companions, have to weeve in midd out of in-

at last, to porrunde some natives for an attack on the poon un mumble cost reefs, some

"Tom" the monitor,v

the mufice and of an underwater others maricod-only.

Gliterance, in the colour of the

to accompany us in our sticiens, THO" Petterti ying.

motor-bont, the facia, in murche

of the Devil of the Deep Suddenly, there it is again wate

The sea is perfectly calm the giant mante zooming and Shis Insalate we weave carefully coping towards us on a vang out the coral met andere This Ume I am convinced; it wa

by a

JOHNNY HAZARD

must

By Frank Robbins

YOU'VE GOT A ONE-TRACK' MIND, GUI......ALL IT KNOWS

SHIN KILLING?

SO LET' SFARM YOUR PROD" KAWHILE I SPOIL". SOME OF YOUR CHILDSHNESSA:

sick

"

this situation

calls

San Miquel