69 



Prior to the enquiry upon which the present notice is 

 based, our knowledge of the industry was most meagre. 

 Scarcely any definite information had been recorded, save 

 for a few eeneralizino- sentences contained in a short 

 article by Mr. Edgar Thurston in Bulletin No. i of the 

 Madras Government Museum, 1894, and paragraph 

 references of the same type and brevity in official and 

 other works dealing with the commercial products of 

 India. My first enquiries on reaching Calcutta were to 

 verify this apparent lack of definite knowledge concerning 

 the course and details of the industry. It was not diffi- 

 cult to do so, for from enquiries made at the Indian 

 Museum (Economic Section) I found that this trade had 

 never before formed the subject of Government enquiry, 

 that the exhibits in the Museum are limited to examples 

 of shells as fished at Tuticorin and elsewhere and to 

 finished specimens of the commoner types of bracelets and 

 armlets in use in North-east India, and that the longest 

 published notice is one of a page in length in Sir George 

 Watt's volume on " Indian Art at Delhi, 1903." This 

 last is not of any importance ; it has apparently been 

 compiled from notes made upon an exhibit by a Dacca 

 manufacturer at Delhi. Save for giving an illustration 

 of a Dacca shell-cutter at work, it does not throw any 

 further light on the subject, and on several of the few 

 details mentioned I have found the statements erro- 

 neous, e.g-.^ that where it says " as a rule only one bracelet 

 can be cut from each shell." 



(/;) Present centres of the trade. 



Tavemier in his travels through India in the seven- 

 teenth century noted the existence of an extensive trade 

 in cuttino- bracelets and charms from "sea-shells as laroe 

 as an Qg^.'' According to G. V. Ball's translation of this 

 work (London, 1899), Dacca and Patna were then tlie 

 centres of this industry, Tavernier stating that it gave 

 employment to more than 2,000 persons in these towns. 

 Dacca to-day remains the chief working centre, but the 

 mention of Patna was a mystery to me till I found that 

 another busy and long-established working centre exists 

 near the district town of Pabna. No industry of this 

 nature exists at Patna and 1 have no hesitation in 



