1922] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 3 1 



" each vessel reached its place, half of its complement of divers 

 " plunged into the sea, each with a heavy stone tied (sic) to his feet 

 "to make him sink rapidly,* and furnished with a sack into which 

 " he put his oysters, and having a rope tied round his body, the 

 " end of which was passed round a pulley and held by some of the 

 " boatmen. Thus equipped, the diver plunged in, and on reaching 

 " the bottom, filled his sack with oysters until his breath failed, 

 " when he pulled a string with which he was provided, and, the 

 " signal being perceived by the boatmen above, he was forthwith 

 " hauled up by the rope, together with his sack of oysters. No 

 " artificial appliances of any kind were used to enable the men to 

 " stay under water for long periods; they were accustomed to the 

 "work almost from infancy, and consequently did it easily and 

 "well. Some were more skilful and lasting than others, and it 

 "was usual to pay them in proportion to their powers, a practice 

 " which led to much emulation and occasionally to fatal results. 



" As soon as all the first set of divers had come up, and their 

 "takings had been examined and thrown into the hold, the second 

 "set went down. After an interval, the first set dived again, and 

 "after them the second ; and so on turn by turn. The work was 

 " very exhausting, and the strongest could not dive oftener than 

 " seven or eight times in a day, so that the day's diving was 

 " finished always before noon. 



"The diving over, the vessels returned to the coast and dis- 

 charged their cargoes ; and the oysters were all thrown into a 

 " kind of park, and left for two or three days, at the end of which 

 "they opened and disclosed their treasures. The pearls, having 

 " been extracted from the shells, and carefully washed, were placed 

 " in a metal receptacle containing some five or six colanders of 

 "graduated sizes, which were fitted one into another so as to leave 

 11 a space between the bottoms of every two, and were pierced with 



* The writer is obviously in error when he states that the diving stone is " tied " to 

 the diver's foot, that a diver cannot dive oftener than seven or eight times a day and also 

 in his account of the method of extracting the pearls from the decaying oysters. 



His statement that one day's catch (not necessarily the first) belongs expressly to the 

 King (Nayakkan of Madura) or Setupati according to the locality where the fishery takes 

 place is correct only with regard to India. This privilege was frequently contended for 

 by the Nawab of the Carnatic at the Aripu fisheries but was consistently refused by the 

 Dutch, who however allowed the exaction to be made by mutual agreement between this 

 potentate and those of his subjects taking part in the fisheries held on the Ceylon side, 

 the suzerain right to one day's fishing (Valy or Wally) being reserved at Aripu by the 

 Dutch Government as one of its sources of revenue. 



