LIFE SAVING - SWIMMING The ability to save life is the glorious privilege of a swimmer, and many are ever ready to risk their own lives in order to aid others in danger. That the ability ought to be cultivated is unquestionable, for the danger to the rescuer is thereby minimised, and his chances of successfully rendering efficient aid increased. Numbers of gallant men have been drowned in the vain endeavour to rescue because they have not under stood the best methods of bringing a drowning person to land, or of releasing themselves from a grip when clutched. Courage and presence of mind are essentially needed. It may be argued that, if unpossessed of courage, a swimmer would never go out to the rescue of another. That may be so, but it by no means follows that presence of mind under difficulties is inherent to the courageous. To accomplish a rescue with the least possible danger the two should be combined.
The greatest honour that a swimmer can obtain is the medal of the Royal Humane Society. It is the Victoria Cross of swimming, and its possessor ranks far above the mere holder of fast swimming championships. The Royal Humane Society was founded at a time when ignorant prejudice against all attempts at saving life was rife. It has not entirely overcome this antipathy even yet, for at the present day strange supersti tious ideas as to the evil consequences of rescuing drowning persons or of touching the apparently drowned exist in our own country but the gradual spread of education will, no doubt, tend to dispel from the minds of fishermen and others these incongruous, cruel, and inhuman beliefs. A most painful case, whereby two lives were sacrificed to superstition, oc curred as recently as July, 1891, at Bundoran, County Donegal. About ten o'clock in the morning two young ladies went to bathe. The tide was beginning to ebb, and a ground sea or under tow was on. The ladies were noticed to be in distress, but before anything was done they were adrift on the ebb tide and out of their depth. A brother of one of them dashed in, but became exhausted and had to be rescued. Then a boat was put out from the pier, but it was too small for the heavy sea and the men returned for a larger boat. The boatmen pulled away with a will and eventually reached the ladies, one of whom was supporting the other. Only for a minute or so had her head been noticed under water when the boat reached the spot, and one of the men, reaching over, caught her by the arm. Then, after acting bravely, the boatmen gave way to
deplorable superstition. There was still a chance of resusci tating at least one of the ladies, but, fearful lest one or both should be dead, they refused to take either of the bodies into the boat, and began dragging them behind their craft as if they had been logs of wood. It was 'unlucky' to take a corpse on board ; there would be no successful fishing if a dead body were landed on the pier ; and so, instead of pulling to the nearest landing-place, the boat, with these poor creatures trail ing behind, was headed for the shore. The spectators were horror-stricken as they watched the faces of the girls rise and fall in the waves, and when the craft came close to land their excitement was still further increased by the action of the crew, who stood up instead of leaping out after their boat had grounded and fetching the bodies ashore Once more super. stition was at work. Ill-luck would follow them if they wet themselves bringing a corpse to land ; the onlookers had there fore to rush out and fetch in the bodies. The ladies were then past human aid.
Some of the Cornish fishermen are also still possessed of similar dreadful superstitions. Frequent references to the subject are to be found in English literature. 'fhe refusal of Bryce the pedlar, in Sir Walter Scott's tale of the Pirate,' to assist Mordaunt in rescuing a sailor from drowning is explained in the remark of Are you mad ? you that have lived sae lang in Zetland, to risk the saving of a drowning man. Wot ye not if ye bring him to life again, he will be sure to do you some capital injury?' This superstition, that ill-luck or injury will follow the rendering of help to a fellow-creature when in dire need, is common in some form or other to the ignorant of most countries. In China the spirit of a drowned man is supposed to wander over the water until appeased by the death of another person ; in Germany the river spirit is the evil-minded creature to whose sacrifice all accidental drownings are due ; th Bohemian imagines that death to himself will follow, or else 1l-luck to his fishing, if he snatch from the water-demon's hands another person. Some nations even go so far as to assist a man in drowning instead of helping him out of the water ; and the Kamtchadals, even if the man manages to get out, will not receive him into their house, but reckon him as dead.