But emigration as an equivalent of death, often coming after it as inevitable result. This eventuality is always present in the life of sailors and that's why they have learned how to live with it. One of the more characteristic songs of the sea , the song "tou Kyr-Voria" (song of mister Northwind), is also one of the most widespread Songs of the sailors in the Greek islands .It describes in a poetic manner the characteristic scenes repeated innumerable times in the sea-way plied by the Greek ships through the centuries.
   But many more are the songs with a theme related to the professions of the sea , particularly that of the fisherman. Fishing in general and haw to catch a lot of fish are a constant source of inspiration and the allegoric comparison between a good big fish being caught to a girl falling in the nets of a fisherman's love is typical.
   The following song , sung by the fisherman returning from a successful fishing , is equally characteristic. The meaningless exclamations, according to one interpretation , served for the coordination of the rowers 9see song from the region of , Marmaras). But among all the professions of the sea , the most dangerous and the one having taken the heaviest toll, is that of the sponge-diver.
    Every year after Easter , in many of the Aegean islands and particularly in the Dodecanese , dozens of caiques left for months for the coasts of Northern Africa in order to collect sponges , using heavy diving -suits. At the time of their departure no one knew upon which of these men would the lot of being struck by the caisson disease(the divers's desease) fall, resulting in them returning home paralyzed.
   This tragic fact charged the feats held on the eve their departure with an incredible amount of internal tension. The most stirring moment in these feats is the dance of the "mechanic"(i.e the one wearing the iron helmet) .It's a male dance (a kind of a round dance )where the man on the "cape' (the man leading the circle) pretends to be "taken"(paralyzed by caisson disease).he stops , leans on stick , walks a few steps (while the rest are dancing on the spot ), he drops the stick and almost falls down and then, grabbing it, he stands up and dances up and dances again. It's a ritual dance based on some kind of "homeopathic" sorcery, aiming to lay the possibility of the diver's disease.