PEARLS AND PEARL-DIVING 



a number of boats and the splash of the stone weights 

 are enough to frighten him away from the scene ; indeed, 

 the shouting and bustle of the crews is to be regarded 

 largely as a special entertainment got up by the Sinhalese 

 with the avowed intention of keeping him at a safe dis- 

 tance. The dark skins of the divers, too, are generally 

 believed to constitute in themselves a sort of scare-shark, 

 so much so that the Arabs and the more light-skinned of 

 the Ceylonese are in the habit of smearing their bodies 

 with a semi-permanent black dye. A few of them take a 

 further precaution, though they themselves would admit 

 that in most cases it is a needless one ; carry in their 

 girdles two or three short spikes made of iron-wood which, 

 if need arise, they are prepared to poke into the eyes of 

 the monster. 



One rather interesting superstition still lingers among 

 a few of the older divers in connection with the 

 shark. I mean the resorting at the beginning of 

 the season to the hereditary shark-charmer, a being 

 who is endowed, they maintain, with power to exor- 

 cise the voracious creature, and turn him back from 

 any person thus charmed ; the ceremony connected with 

 the exorcism is a very ancient one, presumably rather 

 magical than religious. By some of the natives an 

 annual visit to this personage is thought insufficient, so it 

 occasionally happens that a boat's crew will not sail unless 

 the charmer or some individual deputed by him accom- 

 panies them to the pearl ground. 



If not too exhausted by his efforts, the diver on coming 

 to the surface will merely hand in his catch and hang for 



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