100 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



each with an assistant. Before the divers descend a 

 number of quaint ceremonies are gone through with 

 incantations, both in the boats and on shore. So 

 superstitious are these men, that not one of their 

 number, Christian or idolater, would continue their 

 employment without the countenance of the sorcerer, 

 and in 1857 Government was compelled to pay these 

 impostors. The chief shark-charmer was a Roman 

 Catholic.* The same authority further states that the 

 utmost depth in which a diver can remain safely is 

 about seventy feet. They can remain under water from 

 fifty to sixty seconds, and the diving is carried on from 

 five to six hours daily. Each of the ten divers can, in 

 the course of the day, bring up from 1000 to 4000 pearl- 

 shells. A single oyster contains sometimes 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 

 Ceylonese 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 

 grinding. The crops are slit up, and the pearls taken 

 out. It is said to be done by other Indian races, but 

 that the pearls lose weight. 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 pretext for exacting what they term "Charity 

 oysters/' from the divers and boatmen of their faith 

 for the use of Buddha, who, when propitiated, will 

 make the fish yield more pearls in future seasons, f 



* ' Voyage of the Novara,' vol. i. p. 332. 



f ' Household Words/ " My Pearl-fishing Expedition," vol. iii. p. 80. 



