25 
and as some men owe allegiance to the old Portuguese 
Mission and others to the rival Jesuit Mission, two heaps 
are made, and the value of these put on one side to be 
handed over to the respective parish priests. In return 
the priests give each diver a consecrated candle once a 
year, wiichn is lit by the bedside during the illness of any 
in the family. Another voluntary contribution is usually 
made to the head of the Parawa caste, whose title of 
Jadhi Talaivan is an old and honoured one. To him the 
customary dues paid by the divers are two annas per 100 
shells paid out of the proceeds. Until recent years this 
contribution was eet paid, but to-day the men 
refuse to pay it to the Jadhi’s peon when catches are 
disappointing or when they are in acrotchety humour as 
is often the case. In passing it ts interesting to note 
that small dues in kind are also paid irregularly by the 
net-fishermen, and whenever a dugong is caught, the 
head is sent to the Jadhi Talaivan as his prerogative, 
The gauge used in measuring chanks brought in by 
the divers is a small wooden board about 9 inches long 
by 44 inches wide having a brass bound aperture in the 
centre, 22 inches in diameter. Those which cannot pass 
through this aperture are paid for at the full rate, those 
which pass being rejected. Of these latter, those over 
2+ inches in diameter as measured by a gauge opening of 
this diameter are confiscated in order to deter the divers 
so far as is possible from bringing in immature shells to 
the detriment of the continued prosperity of the beds, 
while the smaller shells (under 2; inches gauge) are 
returned alive to the sea whenever possible. Prior to the 
great famine of 1877, the divers did not eat the flesh of 
the chanks, but since that year their habit is to extract 
on the run home from the fishing ground as much of the 
flesh as they possibly can with the aid of a pointed iron 
rod. On arrival ashore each man has a little palmyra- 
leaf basket more or less filled with “ chank meat ” 
(FaHGF Fon) consisting of the muscular parts—the foot 
and the head region —for conversion into dried slices to be 
subsequently sold in the bazaar. 
After the shells have been received and payment 
made to the divers, they are sorted into nine grades for 
sale purposes, by means of a set of 9 gauges of diameter 
