62 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



times thirty or forty pearls, of which some may be worth 

 a sovereign on the spot. The small valueless seed-pearls 

 are burnt, and sold as pearl lime to the wealthy Malays, 

 to add to the betel and cabbage-nuts which they chew. 

 The Ceylon ese mix the lustreless pearls with grain, and 

 feed their poultry with them, in whose crops the pearls 

 regain their former brilliancy after a few minutes' grind- 

 ing. The crops are slit up, and the pearls are taken out. 

 It is said to be done by other Indian races, but that the 

 pearls lose weight.f In India the priests of Buddha 

 keep up the strange belief as to the origin of pearls 

 which I have mentioned elsewhere, and make it a pre- 

 text for exacting what they term " charity oysters" from 

 the divers and boatmen of their faith for the use of 

 Buddha, who, when thus propitiated, will make the fish 

 yield more pearls in future seasons. J 



The pearl fishery of Ceylon in 1864 suffered con- 

 siderably, owing to an irruption of the skate fish, which 

 was said to have killed the oysters ; and the loss of re- 

 venue was calculated at £50,000. 



The common freshwater Unio {Unio tumidus), and 

 also Unio pictorum, both produce pearls, but they are 

 generally small, and of a bad colour; sometimes I have 

 found several in one shell, and, again, I have opened 

 many, and not been successful. 



A species of freshwater mussel, Anodonta cygnea, is 

 said to be eaten in the county of Leitrim by the pea- 

 santry, and Unionida are eaten in the south of Europe, 

 either roasted in their shells and drenched with oil, or 

 covered with breadcrumbs and scalloped ; and, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Wilhelm Gottlob Rosenhauer, Unio Requienii 



* ' Voyage of the Novara,' vol. i. p. 385. 



t ' Household Words ;' " My Pearl-fishing Expedition," vol. hi. p. 80. 



