But how on earth did prehistoric people find what are often just specks in the world’s biggest ocean? Some years ago I came across a man who thought he knew. Samoan meteorologist Penehuro Lefale told an international conference that they did it because they had balls.
Helmsmen, he said, would hang over the side of their rafts and trail their scrotums in the water, using the most sensitive parts of their bodies to pick up changes in water temperature.
“If the water was becoming colder, their testicles would shrink and they knew they were moving away from land,” he went on. “If the water was warmer, they knew land was near.” story here
Fascinating…or not?
Boadicea's Chariot 
I’ve heard some odd stories… this one takes the prize!
yak!
I will refrain from the rude and crude answer that immediately springs to mind… 😉
You were warned 🙂
Mornin’, Bravo – Having been to Samoa, Tonga and Fiji on many occasions, I can only say that their collective ancestors must have had balls of steel. Thousands of year before Europeans were still scared of sailing west for fear of falling off the edge of the world, these guys (and gals, presumably) paddled off into the wide blue yonder of the Pacific with no idea of what lay ahead.
Unless you’ve been there, you have absolutely no idea how big the Pacific is – Apia, Nuku ‘alofa and Nadi are all several hours flying time from Brisbane and it must have taken them weeks if not months to reach their destinations and only the biggest and strongest survived. This fact is evident today by the genetic size of Polynesians in general. Think Queen Salote or Jonah Lomu and you’ll get the picture. I once attended (in Tonga) a rugby international between Tonga and Samoa and I’m not kidding when I say that the earth shook when Manu Samoa ran past.
Wonderful places and happy memories.
OZ
Bollux.
What’s bollux?
OZ
I understand that the recently deposed Great Helmsman and Dear Leader used to try to navigate his way around the world economy by dangling Balls in the water!
If I lobbed mine over the side, I would be able to tell you how deep it was too. 😉
Ferret – That reminds me of the pre-PC joke of the two, errrm, African-Americans on a bridge over the levee, both of whom need to take a leak and do so. One says, “Hey, dis water cold!” and the other says, “Yeah, an’ it deep too!
Is that my taxi?
OZ
Hmmm. Can’t imagine it was a very long-lived practice. Shark! Shark!
Bolleaux
Pseu – Oi! – As a maker of gattocks to the Sunday family, bolleaux is my copyright, young lady.
OZ
Sorry, OZ. BUT: it has been in my vocabulary since about 1982.
I prefer the Anglo-Saxon version!