PEARLS AND MOTEER-OF-PEARL. 395 



rending of a way from ear to nasal passage. Nearly all divers 

 become partly or totally deaf. Incipient heart and lung troubles 

 are quickly developed to a fatal end. Paralysis is often induced. 

 Sharks occasionally devour the naked natives; such tragedies 

 are not common, however, since the splashing and constant agi- 

 tation of the water serve to keep them at bay — though, no 

 doubt, the natives themselves would credit their immunity to 

 the shark-charmer who accompanies each boat. 



The native crews off Ceylon usually include ten divers, five of 

 whom rest while the other five are diving. Each man has a div- 

 ing stone, weighing perhaps forty pounds, to which is attached a 

 rope long enough to reach the bottom, and having a loop for the 

 foot. The diver slips his foot into the loop at the sinking stone, 

 inhales a full breath, compresses his nostrils with his left hand, 

 raises his body as high as possible, and sinks swiftly to the bot- 

 tom, feet foremost. The average depth for native divers is fifty 

 feet, the greatest depth about seventy-five. The naked diver 

 must work with great rapidity, as he can remain at the bottom 

 only about fifty-five seconds. In spite of stories of divers re- 

 maining below for three or four minutes, the best divers rarely 

 reach eighty seconds, and few exceed sixty. In this brief period 

 such shells as can be secured are thrust into the shell-bag, net, 

 or basket, the tender in the boat is signaled by the line attached, 

 and the diver assists his own ascent by seizing the bag line as it 

 is drawn up. 



In the Persian Gulf the ancient custom of stopping the ears 

 with cotton saturated with oil and closing the nostrils with pin- 

 cers of tortoise shell is still in vogue. But the primitive method 

 of diving is now being superseded by scientific diving in the mod- 

 ern diving dress. This consists of a rubber-cloth suit in one piece 

 from foot to neck. The hands are bare, the elastic wristbands of 

 the dress hugging tight enough to exclude water. The neck is 

 large, of course, to admit the body after the feet and legs. The 

 diver once in this dress, the neck is fastened between the double 

 rims of a brass corselet, and then a big copper helmet is set over 

 the head and screwed to the corselet. The helmet has glass win- 

 dows at each side and in front, an air-tube entering at the back 

 through which air is supplied by a pump worked by a couple 

 of men in the boat, and a valve at the side for the outlet of 

 vitiated air. The armored diver wears leaded canvas or leather 

 boots weighing fifteen or sixteen pounds, and a couple of heart- 

 shaped leaden plates over chest and back weighing twice as much 

 more. He has a life-line fastened to his right foot and then by 

 a slip-noose about his waist. This life-line is held by a " tender " 

 in the boat who answers signals : one jerk, pull up ; two, more 

 air ; three, lower bag. 



