Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 103 
shaped sea-gods, or Nagas." These mythological creatures 
—gods of water, thunder, rain, and wind—were believed 
to have their abode in certain ponds and rivers, and 
especially in splendid palaces at the bottom of the sea. 
Hence we find many curious stories in the literature of 
these countries. In Oldham’s work “The Sun and the 
Serpent” (London, 1905, p. 61), allusion is made to the 
Nagas of southern India living under the sea in a place 
called the land of gems.” Legge, in the “ Sacred Books 
of the East” (vol. xl, p. 211), quotes a legend from 
u 
id 
t 
2 
f 
f 
4 
4 
-_ 
mo 
Shuangtze, a writer of the 4th century B.c., who says: 
“Near the Ho river there was a poor man, who supported 
his family by weaving rushes. His son, when diving in a 
deep pool, found a pearl worth a thousand ounces of 
silver. The father said: ‘Bring a stone and beat it to 
pieces, a pearl of this value must have been in a pool 
nine khung deep and under the chin of the black dragon. 
That you were able to get it must have been owing to 
your having found him asleep. Let him awake, and the 
consequences will not be small.” Another old Chinese 
account of the Lien-chan district, in the Canton province 
(Kwantung), states: “In the sea there is an island with a 
lake, into which the barbarous natives dive for shells ; 
some years they are abundant, and in others scarce. 
There is a myth amongst the fishermen of a walled city 
at the bottom, guarded by monsters, containing pearls of 
large size and splendour, but which cannot be obtained 
for the guards ; small ones, growing outside the city walls 
like grass, being the only ones obtainable.” 
91 On the subject of the Chinese dragon, see Dr. M. W. de Visser, 
‘©The Dragon in China and Japan,” Amsterdam, 1913. 
92 W. J. Perry, of. c7t., p. 11, quoting Oldham. 
*5 Kunz and Stevenson, of. cz¢., p. 302, quoting Legge. 
%4 F, Ilague, *‘On the Natural and Artificial production of Pearls in 
China,” Journ. Roy. Astat. Soc. G. B. & ., vol. xvi., pt. 2, Art. xv., p. 281. 
