PEARLS AND PEARL-DIVING 



the boat, often a very necessary measure on account of the 

 strain he has undergone. 



As to the length of time that an " undressed " diver 

 can remain under water, there is remarkable divergence; 

 the shape of the man's chest and shoulders and the condi- 

 tion of his heart and lungs are the things that decide that 

 matter, together, of course, with the amount of pressure 

 to be sustained. Eighty seconds would perhaps be a 

 reasonable average, though Mediterranean sponge divers 

 have been known to stay down three and a half 

 minutes. 



But does not a sensible diver keep one eye on the 

 oysters and the other on the sharks ? it may well be asked. 

 Possibly; but some of them are constitutionally unable to 

 keep their eyes open at all, relying instead on their sense 

 of touch ; their lids drop when they enter the water, and 

 cannot be raised until the diver comes up again, as many 

 swimmers are aware from their own experience. 



As to the sharks which, more's the pity, certainly do 

 abound in the Gulf of Manaar, it is but rarely that they 

 pursue, let alone attack, a pearl-diver, and we may regard 

 ninety-nine per cent of the ghastly tales about these 

 monsters as fables. Sir E. Tennent, who may be taken 

 as an authority on all matters relating to Ceylon, writing 

 over forty years ago, says that not more than one well- 

 authenticated instance of a pearl-fisher's meeting his 

 death in this manner could be quoted within a space of 

 fifty years. In the first place the shark has almost in- 

 variably a dread of human beings and, at any time, may 

 be scared away by sustained noise. The presence of such 

 p 225 



