153 
The trade in these amulets is of considerable dimen- 
sions. Thus the Tahsildar of Chidambaram reports 
that rings worth about Rs. 500 are sold yearly in his 
taluk to the residents and to the thousands of devotces 
who flock to the great temple of Nataraja. The price 
runs from two pies to one anna per ring— some are very 
rough untrimmed S¢romdéus rings, while the higher 
priced may be of real chank with a few oblique lines of 
ornament sawed or filed on the outer surface. 
The rough beads used in making necklaces and 
bracelets look very much like tiny carpal bones ; they sell 
about eight beads for one pie—a whole necklace may be 
bought for one anna ; the small bangles worn by babies 
in Madura and Tinnevelly cost 3 to 5 annas per pa'r. 
Che latter are made largely in Kilakarai, a large Muham- 
madan settlement on the Ramnad coast, near the head of 
the Gulf of Mannar. The majority are cut chiefly from 
under-sized shells too small to have any value in the 
Bengal market. By rights these shells should not be 
fished ; they should be put back alive by the divers in 
order to grow to adult dimensions. This precaution is 
followed as far as circumstances permit in the Tuticorin 
chank fishery which is conducted departmentally by the 
Government of Madras ; in the Ramnad fishery the short- 
sighted greed of the renter and his employees takes no 
account of any such precaution for the future prosperity 
of the fishery. 
(7) PROVERBS. 
No language is richer than Tamil in that peculiar 
form of wisdom which is enshrined in the pithy saws of 
the common people. Many are very wise indeed and 
often have a Delphic turn confusing to a simple wit. 
The works of Jensen* and Lazarus+ contain over 
10,000 proverbs, mostly current at the present day, 
and from these two collections ten typical proverbs 
concerning the chank have been gleaned. 
From Jensen we get :— 
526. Like blowing a chank in the ear of a deaf man. 
DeGriom 51 8Co Fae oo Be) HCunw, 
* Kev. H. Jensen, 4 classtfed list of Tamil Proverbs, Madras, 1897. 
x Dictionary of Tamil Proverbs, Madras. 
