312 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
the coast. Before the beginning of the fishery, the govern- 
ment causes the banks to be explored, and then lets them to 
the highest bidder, very wisely allowing only a part of them to 
be fished every year. The fishing begins in February, and 
ceases by the beginning of April. The boats employed for this 
purpose assemble in the~bay, set off at night at the firing of a 
signal-gun, and reach the banks after sunrise, where fishing goes 
on till noon, when the sea-breeze which arises about that time 
warns them to return to the bay. As soon as they appear 
within sight, another gur is fired, to 
inform the anxious owners of their 
return. Each boat carries twenty men 
and a chief; ten of them row and 
hoist up the divers, who are let down 
by fives,—and thus alternately diving 
and resting keep their strength to the 
end of their day’s work. The diver, 
when he is about to plunge, com- 
presses his nostrils tightly with a small piece of horn, which 
keeps the water out, and stuffs his ears with bees’-wax for the 
same purpose. He then seizes with the toes of his right foot a 
rope to which a stone is attached, to accelerate the descent, 
while the other foot grasps a bag of network. With his right 
hand he lays hold of another rope, and in this manner rapidly 
reaches the bottom. He then hangs the net round his neek, 
and with much dexterity and all possible despatch collects as 
many oysters as he can while he is able to remain under water, 
which is usually about two minutes. He then resumes his 
former position, makes a signal to those above by pulling the 
rope in his right hand, and is immediately by this means hauled 
up into the boat, leaving the stone to be pulled up afterwards 
by the rope attached to it. Accustomed from infancy to their 
work, these divers do not fear descending repeatedly to depths 
of fifty or sixty feet. They plunge more than fifty times in a 
morning, and collect each time about a hundred shells. Some- 
times, however, the exertion is so great that, upon being brought 
into the boat, they discharge blood from their mouth, ears, and 
nostrils. 
While the fishing goes on, a number of conjurors and priests 
Ceylon Pearl-Oyster. 
