6 CEYLON PEARL OYSTER REPORT. 



7 to 10 days. Bacterial putrefaction alone is not relied upon to get rid of the flesh, 

 the maggots of a species of blow-fly being the agency most in evidence and most 

 desired. Under favourable conditions, at the end of 7 to 10 days, the so-called rotting 

 period, the fly maggots should have eaten their way through everything, and have 

 left nothing but empty shells and pearls behind. When the oysters are rotted in 

 s;icks, the time for washing is rendered evident by the pile of brown chrysalis cases - 

 full and empty that litter the ground immediately around the pile of sacks as well 

 as encrust the sacks themselves. 



" The time to wash having arrived, the covers are removed from the ballam, and 

 coolies fill it to the brim with water. As the water level rises to the edge, a mad 

 race for the points above the flood ensues among the maggots which float up in 

 myriads from the lower recesses. The washers range themselves in line along 

 either side, squatting on anything convenient a canoe outrigger, an overturned tub, 

 empty kerosine tins, and the like. They are stripped to the loin-cloth, and are not 

 allowed to take their hands out of the water save to drop out the empty shells. 

 The first process is to rinse the shells thoroughly, to separate the valves, and, by 

 rubbing the outside of one valve against that of the other, to remove any detritus 

 in which a pearl might lodge. The men scrutinize the nacreous lining for attached 

 or shell pearls, placing any found in a special basket. The other shells, after a final 

 rinse, are dropped outside the ballam at the washers' feet. 



, " After the quantity is reduced somewhat, the floating maggots are skimmed off, 

 lifted by hand, and some of the water is baled out through a sieve, any material 

 that remajns therein being carefully returned to the ballam lest a pearl might be 

 contained or entangled in the dirt. More water is then added, and the process of 

 washing the shells is continued. At last all the shells have been removed and the 

 men are then free to stand up and stretch their cramped lirnbs. 



" A fresh supply of water is now poured in till the ballam overflows a rough method 

 of elutriation. Time after time this is repeated till the bulk of the lighter filth is 

 got rid of. Then the remainder of the water is decanted, and the heavy debris in 

 which the pearls are mingled is exposed on the bottom. More water is repeatedly 

 poured in, the detritus or ' sarraku ' the while being kneaded and turned over and 

 over again. 



" When this apparently interminable cleansing process comes eventually to an end, 

 every scrap of sarraku is removed with scrupulous care to a cotton cloth and bundled 

 up. One ballam full of oysters will usually furnish from two to three such bundles 

 of pearl-containing dirt. The bundles of sarraku are opened later and spread to dry in 

 the sun, undergoing a preliminary search at the beginning, and if wished at intervals 

 during the drying. These early searchings yield usually the largest and therefore 

 the most conspicuous of the contained pearls. 



" When dry, the material is sifted out into several grades, and each is gone over 

 time after time by the men employed (tig. 3). The final search after it appears 



