382 Voyage of the Novara. 



denly, as though evoked by the wand of a magician, a 

 regular town starts into existence, of tents, or even neat huts, 

 with bamboo and cabbage- tree palings, roofed over with palm- 

 leaves, rice-straw, or coarse thick woollen cloth ; booths for 

 the sale of merchandise " rise like an exhalation " during the 

 night to supply necessaries of all sorts to the converging 

 multitudes from the interior, as well as the fleets of visitors 

 from seaward; and last, not least, the divers themselves. 

 Swindlers and mountebanks throng hither, adroit thieves 

 creep stealthily about, all Indian customs and fashions are 

 represented,, all castes jostle each other. Priests, and the 

 subordinate hangers-on of the various sects, hurry about, and 

 jugglers and Nautch girls vie with each other in amusing the 

 noisy multitudes. 



The result of numerous experiments has proved that no 

 diving apparatus can replace the human machine, the cost of 

 which, moreover, is a fixed definite quantity, viz., the fourth 

 part of the pearls brought up, which is the diver's share. In 

 each boat, or " Dhonie," are ten divers, each having an 

 assistant. Before the divers proceed to descend, a number of 

 quaint ceremonies are gone through, and incantations mur- 

 mured, as well in the boats as on shore, by the so-called 

 " shark-charmers ; " indeed, the superstition of the divers, 

 who for the most part come from the Coromandel coast, is so 

 great, that not one of their number. Christian or idolator, 

 would continue in this employment without the countenance 

 of the sorcerer ; and the Government finds itself compelled to 



