248 MONOMYARIA.—AVICULAD A. 
“In preparing the pearls, particularly in drilling 
and stringing them, the black people are wonder- 
fully expert. I was very much struck with the 
instrument they employ in drilling, as well as the 
dexterity with which they use it. A machine made 
of wood, of a shape resembling an obtuse inverted 
cone, about six inches in length and four in breadth, 
is supported upon three feet, each twelve inches 
long. In the upper flat surface of this machine 
holes or pits are formed to receive the larger pearls, 
the smaller ones being beat in with a wooden 
hammer. The drilling instruments are spindles of 
various sizes, according to that of the pearls; they 
are turned round in a wooden head by means of a 
bow-handle to which they are attached. The 
pearls being placed in the pits which we have 
already mentioned, and the point of the spindle 
adjusted to them, the workman presses on the 
wooden head of the machine with his left hand, 
while his right is employed in turning round the 
bow-handle. During the process of drilling he 
occasionally moistens the pearl, by dipping the 
little finger of his right hand in a cocoa-nut filled 
with water, which is placed by him for that pur- 
pose; this he does with a dexterity and quickness 
which scarcely impede the operation, and can only 
be acquired by much practice. 
‘They have also a variety of other instruments 
both for cutting and drilling the pearls. To clean, 
round, and polish them to that state in which we 
see them, a powder made of the pearls themselves 
is employed. These different operations in pre- 
paring the pearls, occupy a great number of the 
black men in various parts of the island. In the 
black town or pettah of Columbo, in particular, 
