926 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



It attracts to the coast not only a multitude of the 

 Cingalese, but crowds of speculators from all parts of the 

 vast Indian peninsula, whose variety of language, costume, 

 and manners, is described as very striking and pleasing. 

 On the eve of the fishery there is a curious and picturesque 

 spectacle. A mass of huts, composed of a few poles stuck 

 in the ground, interwoven with light bamboos, and covered 

 with the leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, is at once seen to 

 arise on the solitary sea-shore. Bazaars, too, appear in 

 long rows, gaily decorated, and packed with all varieties of 

 merchandise ; while there are booths for the sale of strong 

 liquors, as well as of sweetmeats and native drinks. 



Amidst the trading assemblage a temple, with its 

 cloths, flags, and flowers, has been observed, attended by 

 its priests, who are no less eagerly seeking for profit by 

 selling charms to the divers, and which are deemed lucky 

 for those who intend to make purchases. 



They even put forth a claim to temple oysters, which 

 is yielded to by the divers, most probably from the fear of 

 refusal involving some malignant influence. 



Conspicuous among the assembled crowd, when the 

 fishing is about to commence, is the shark charmer, who is 

 supposed to exert some magic power over the monsters of 

 the deep, and without whose presence no diver will under- 

 take his task. 



He is usually a tall, dark, and long-haired man, bear- 

 ing on his skin mysterious characters, and with his neck 

 and arms adorned with strings of heavy beads. 



He strongly resembles the "medicine man' of the 

 American Indians, and the sorcerers of every age, who find 

 a prey in the ignorant and superstitious. Striking as his 

 appearance is to such persons, he does not rely upon it for 



