THE OCEAN AS A SOURCE OF FOOD SUPPLY 181 



through, the two outer ones having their ends slightly 

 curved inwards towards each other, and the whole 

 seized together with lashings of coir spunyarn. For 

 all equipment the fisherman has a paddle, a rush 

 basket lashed to one of the seizings, and his coir fish- 

 ing-line, with a polished stone for sinker. He is 

 naked all but a loin-cloth, or dhoti, and a turban, in 

 the folds of which he may sometime keep a leaf of 

 tobacco and a small coin. Thus, without food or 

 water, he will venture as far as three miles from the 

 shore, and remain tossing upon the heaving billows in 

 the attitude of prayer, his knees calloused like pieces 

 of rhinoceros hide, for sometimes the whole night 

 through. And, if he be exceptionally fortunate, his 

 whole catch may sell for the equivalent of eight- 

 pence, or eight annas. There is, to my mind, some- 

 thing mysterious about this lack of ability to extend 

 or improve upon such a miserably inadequate and 

 painful way of fishing. 



For the people are fond of fish, not, as far as I 

 could see, eaten fresh, though that may be because of 

 the exceedingly scanty supply, but highly salted and 

 dried to the hardness of wood. These are mostly a 

 kind of ribbon-fish, something like a flattened eel, 

 which are scorched over the fire, then rubbed up into 

 a rough powder and mingled with curry to flavour the 

 everlasting rice. A further proof, if any were needed, 

 that it is not from any reluctance to face the sea in its 

 most perilous forms that the fisheries are neglected 

 may be found in the existence from time immemorial 

 of the pearl fisheries in the Gulf of Manaar, on the 

 southern shores of India. Here the natives almost 

 live in the sea, diving for pearls, and making fortunes 



