69 
Prior to the enquiry upon which the present notice 1s 
based, our knowledge of the industry was most meagre. 
Scarcely any definite information had been recorded, save 
for a few generalizing ‘sentences contained in a short 
article by Mr. Edgar Thurston in Bulletin No. 1 of the 
Madras Government Museum, 1894, and paragraph 
references of the same type and brevity in official and 
other works dealing with the commercial products of 
India. My first enquiries on reaching Calcutta were to 
verify this apparent lack of definite knowledge concerning 
the course and details of the industry. It was not diffi- 
cult to de so, for from enquiries made at the Indian 
Museum (Economic Section) I found that this trade hac 
never before formed the subject of Government enquiry, 
that the exhibits in the Museum are limited to examples 
of shells as fished at Tuticorin and elsewhere and to 
finished specimens of the commoner types of bracelets and 
armlets in use in North-east India, and that the longest 
published notice is one of a page in length in Sir George 
Watt’s volume on “ Indian Art at Delhi, 1903.” This 
last is not of any importance; it has apparently been 
compiled from notes made upon an exhibit by a Dacca 
manufacturer at Delhi. Save for giving an illustration 
of a Dacca shell-cutter at work, it does not throw any 
further light on the subject, and on several of the few 
details mentioned I have found the statements erro- 
neous, ¢.g., that where it says ‘asa rule only one bracelet 
can be cut from each shell.” 
(6) PRESENT CENTRES OF THE TRADE. 
Tavernier in his travels through India in the seven- 
teenth century noted the existence of an extensive trade 
in cutting bracelets and charms from ‘‘sea-shells as large 
as anege.” According to G, V. Ball's translation of this 
work (London, 1899), Dacca and Patna were then the 
centres of this industry, Tavernier stating that it gave 
employment to more than 2,000 persons in these towns. 
Dacca to-day remains the chief working centre, but the 
mention of Patna was amystery to me till I found that 
another busy and long-established working centre exists 
near the district town of Pabna. No industry of this 
nature exists at Patna and I have no hesitation in 
