106 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
There, groups of jewellers, brokers, merchants, 
foreigners and natives, variously employed; some 
bargaining for Pearls, others separating and sorting 
them; others with scales in their hands, weighing and 
ascertaining the value of each; others again hawking 
them about; while a considerable number occupy 
themselves in drilling and preparing the Pearls for 
future use. 
Occasionally a few fantastic figures are seen to 
mingle with the motley groups. These are conjurers, 
known in the Malabar language by the appellation of 
Pillal Karras, or binders of sharks. They are held 
in great veneration by the credulous natives, who 
firmly believe in their miraculous pretensions. Each 
boat is accordingly accompanied by one or two of 
these impostors, who frequently carry off the finest 
Pearls ; whilst others take their stations on the shore, 
where they spend the day in muttering prayers, dis- 
torting their bodies, and performing a variety of 
unmeaning ceremonies. 
In the mean time, the bay is thronged with vessels 
of various descriptions. The boats employed in 
the fishery assemble at the same period, and wait 
the signal for setting sail. This signal is the firing 
of a gun at Arippo, which is answered by a loud 
huzza; each boatman then plies his oar, the vessels 
sail out together, and reach the pearl bank, twenty 
