94 (CC Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 
We have little definite information regarding the 
early use of the fresh-water pearls of India except the 
statement in the “ leriplus”” that a considerable traffic, 
consisting of pearls, betel, Gangetic spikenard, and Gan- 
getic muslins, passed through the market town of Ganges, 
situated on the river of the same name. Schoff, in his 
annotations of this work says “these (pearls) were not of 
best quality ; as Dr. Taylor remarks, those of the Ganges 
streams are inferior, being small, often irregular, and 
usually reddish.” 
Eastward of India a most interesting pearl fishery 
exists in the Mergui Archipelago (Lower Burma). 
According to Kunz and Stevenson (of. czt., p. 134), this 
fishery originated with the Selangs or Salangs, a nomadic 
race of maritime gipsies, supposed to be of Malay descent. 
Their early history is unknown, and no information exists 
as to when these people first found profit in searching for 
pearls. It was probably many centuries ago, and for a 
long time they made contributions of them to the Buddhist 
rulers of Burma. 
In the Malay Archipelago pearl-oysters are among 
the important resources of the seas surrounding Sumatra, 
Java, Borneo, Celebes, the Aru Islands, the Moluccas 
and New Guinea. For hundreds of years pearl-shell and 
pearls have been gathered by the natives from these 
waters, and especially on the coast of the Aru Islands, 
Halmahera, and adjacent Islands, on the east coast of 
Celebes, and about the Sunda group, Pearl-oysters also 
occur near many other islands in this neighbourhood, 
including the Sulu Archipelago and the Philippines.” 
#9 «The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea: Travel and Trade in the 
Indian Ocean by a merchant of the First Century." Translated from the 
Greek and annotated by Wilfrid H. Schoff. London, 1912, 
7° Von Hessling, of. cé/., pp. 71-4; Kunz and Stevenson, of. cit., ppe 
212 seq. 
