94 Shells (us evidence of the Migrations. 



We have little definite information regarding the 

 early use of the fresh-water pearls of India except the 

 statement in the " Periplus " 69 that a considerable traffic, 

 consisting of pearls, betel, Gangetic spikenard, and Gan- 

 getic muslins, passed through the market town of Ganges, 

 situated on the river of the same name. Schoff, in his 

 annotations of this work says "these (pearls) were not of 

 best quality ; as Dr. Taylor remarks, those of the Ganges 

 streams are inferior, being small, often irregular, and 

 usually reddish." 



Eastward of India a most interesting pearl fishery 

 exists in the Mergui Archipelago (Lower Burma). 

 According to Kunz and Stevenson (pp. cit., p. 134), this 

 fishery originated with the Selangs or Salangs, a nomadic 

 race of maritime gipsies, supposed to be of Malay descent. 

 Their early history is unknown, and no information exists 

 as to when these people first found profit in searching for 

 pearls. It was probably many centuries ago, and for a 

 long time they made contributions of them to the Buddhist 

 rulers of Burma. 



In the Malay Archipelago pearl-oysters are among 

 the important resources of the seas surrounding Sumatra, 

 Java, Borneo, Celebes, the Aru Islands, the Moluccas 

 and New Guinea. For hundreds of years pearl-shell and 

 pearls have been gathered by the natives from these 

 waters, and especially on the coast of the Aru Islands, 

 Halmahera, and adjacent Islands, on the east coast of 

 Celebes, and about the Sunda group. Pearl-oysters also 

 occur near many other islands in this neighbourhood, 

 including the Sulu Archipelago and the Philippines. 7 



o "The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea : Travel and Trade in the 

 Indian Ocean by a merchant of the First Century." Translated from the 

 Greek and annotated by Wilfrid II. Schoff. London, 1912. 



70 Von Hassling, op. cil., pp. 71-4 ; Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 

 212 seq. 



