PEARL FISHING AND < BEACHCOMBERS: 259 



that it Avas collected for shipment in the Samoan Group and 

 elsewhere, for what purpose was not known ; though I have 

 heard it was for the making of what is called in India cowrie 

 chunam, a mixture of pulverised shells and cement, which is 

 used in that country for the coating of columns in the interior 

 of houses, giving them an appearance as though made of ivory. 

 The trade has died out, but Mr. Stemdale's report calls 

 attention to the fact that these shells contain pearls of exceed- 

 ing value. He says : 



' The first time which I remember to have noticed one 

 of these gems as being of any possible value, was upon 

 seeing one in the possession of a Earatongan, who had brought 

 it from Fanning Island (of which more anon), and I purchased 

 it for a lump of tobacco. It afterwards was sold to the 

 surgeon of the ship for <10. The surgeon gave it to his 

 wife in Australia, after having refused the offer of 25 

 made to him by a jeweller in Sydney. Its size was about 

 that of a pea ; it was round upon one side, on the other 

 slightly flattened. Its lustre was crystalline ; in the centre 

 appeared a luminous point, from which radiated innumerable 

 bright rays distinctly defined. On another occasion a pearl of 

 this kind was shown me by a trader, who asked my opinion 

 concerning its value. He had bought it from a savage of the 

 Kingsmills for 4 fathoms of cotton print. I told him to the 

 best of my belief it could not be worth less than $1 000, which 

 I would have been very willing to have given him for it. It 

 was not globular, but somewhat of the shape of a convex 

 magnifying lens, perfectly symmetrical, and without a fault ; 

 its diameter was considerably more than half an inch, and its 

 thickness about two-thirds of the measure. It showed the 

 same kind of luminous point in the centre as the one I have 

 already described, with the same radiations. I do not know 



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