1Q22] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 65 



their fishery gains within a month or six weeks of their return 

 home. Indeed I was told subsequently in Tuticorin, that the great 

 majority of the Paravas will do little or no work till they have got 

 rid of their earnings in drink and in entertainments and are 

 penniless once again. 



A small settlement of Paravas, dominated as usual by a white- 

 washed Roman Catholic Church, is set within circumscribed limits 

 on the seaward margin of the town of Kilakarai. Few physical 

 differences that cannot be accounted for by the great divergence 

 between their modes of life can be noted between them and their 

 Lebbai neighbours and I incline to the belief that in the Kilakarai 

 Muhammadans (except among the better class families where 

 distinct traces of Arab blood persist) we have the descendants of 

 Tamil fisher converts to Islam, just as the Paravas have become 

 Roman Catholics. Indeed I cannot help thinking that the Paravas 

 and Kilakarai Lebbais are identical in origin, but in the absence 

 of anthropometric measurements the point cannot be settled 

 definitely. 



Leaving Kilakarai the next morning we proceeded direct to 

 Tuticorin, landing there on the afternoon of April 28th. 



The ensuing three days were spent in completing the necessary 

 preparations for work at sea, getting coal and water aboard the 

 steamer, and, on my part, in interviewing every resident in any 

 way likely to have shrewd opinions based upon local intimacy 

 with the pearl bank region and in comparing and abstracting 

 the information contained in the fishery and inspection records. 

 Unfortunately the latter are all of comparatively recent date, none 

 going back to the period of the Dutch occupation — a lacuna which I 

 was subsequently able to fill in great part by the collation and 

 collection of references which occur incidentally in various and 

 diverse publications. 



The Government records give the names of over 60 pars which 

 are reckoned as potential oyster banks. Reference to charts I 

 and II in the appendix, shows that the majority are massed offshore 

 between Tuticorin and Trichendur in from 6 to 10 fathoms of water. 

 This region includes practically all the banks that have yielded 

 fisheries during the present century and accordingly it was decided 

 to make our first cruise over the area thus indicated. 



TOLAYIRAM PAR. — Accordingly on May 2nd we left Tuticorin 

 at 6-30 a.m. and proceeded to the south end of the Tolayiram Par, 

 9 



