VI] A CEYLON PEARL FISHERY 81 



The competition to fix the price of the first lot takes 

 about a minute. The prices in a single night vary 

 considerably and inexplicably ; a high price, say 

 35 rupees per lOOO, may be given at the beginning 

 of the evening, and later not more than 22 rupees 

 can be extracted. There is a keen and zealous com- 

 petition, the larger buyers competing against the 

 smaller, or all combining in a ring against the Govern- 

 ment auctioneer. The day's catch is generally sold 

 within the same night, but if not, the balance is dis- 

 posed of privately the next morning. 



Early the next day each purchaser comes to the 

 Government agent with an order for the number of 

 oysters knocked down to him the previous night, and 

 sets to work to remove them to his own shed. 



The washing of the pearls from the oysters is a 

 most tedious, primitive, and somewhat disgusting 

 process. The oysters are simply left to rot, the 

 process being much assisted by vast numbers of a 

 species of blow-fly, which after the first day or two 

 infests the whole camp. The maggots of this fly 

 eat their way through everything. After a week's 

 rotting, the seething and disgusting mass is sorted 

 by liand and the pearls, or such of them as are of 

 suflftcient size, are picked out. The residue is now 

 ready to be washed. This is carried on in dug-out 

 canoes or "ballams." The bivalves are put in and 

 water is poured over them. As the water rises, a 



D. 6 



