No. 4 (1917) INDIAN BECHE-DE-MER 129 



(/) Storage for long periods, entailing deterioration while 

 waiting for a good market. 



The first three were the most productive of harmful conse- 

 quences, but taken all together the cumulative effects were so 

 serious that the reputation of the Indian cure had fallen so low that 

 prices in 1914 were so unsatisfactory that the Kilakarai curers 

 virtually retired from the trade. 



Improper evisceration was probably the most potent factor in 

 the discredit of this trade. It was by no means the result of care- 

 lessness, but was a deliberate move to increase the final weight. 

 The present species of Holothurian feeds almost in the same way 

 as earthworms ; it has a series of somewhat scoop-shaped tentacles 

 arranged around the mouth which is near the front end of the 

 body, but turned downwards for convenience in sucking up the sand 

 with the assistance of the scooping action of the tentacles. For 

 nutriment these creatures depend upon the live organisms or other 

 organic matter contained in the sand ingested, such as diatoms, 

 foraminifera, radiolaria, fragments of seaweed and the like. Hence 

 the intestines are always crammed with sand and if these be not 

 fully removed by natural or by forced evisceration, a considerable 

 quantity of sand remains within the body, adding to the weight — a 

 well-known trade device in other Indian trades besides this. The 

 imperfect removal of the outer chalky coating was perhaps not done 

 intentionally ; probably it was the result of carelessness and lack of 

 supervision. Anyway it also added to the final weight and the 

 dodge was occasionally resorted to of putting some black Holo- 

 thurians {H. atra) into the pan during the second boiling in order 

 that the dark purplish pigment contained in their skin might stain 

 the chalky encrustation and render it inconspicuous. Compare 

 the parallel dodge mentioned by Saville-Kent {loc. cit., p. 233) prac- 

 tised in Australia of dyeing the chalk-coated " sand-fish " with 

 mangrove bark decoction. 



Another common trade trick was to slit open large animals and 

 insert small ones in the cavity within. In a country where labour 

 is cheap, such a method may be practised with great profit for a 

 limited time as the trick is not readily detected until the article 

 comes finally into the cook's hands. 



Another great mistake tending to give the product a bad repu- 

 tation was reluctance to expend fuel upon smoking. The chief, if 

 indeed it be not the sole raison d'etre for smoking is to sterilize the 



