278 HOW PEARLS ARE SIFTED. 



which event a terrible struggle takes place ; and unless he 

 is promptly hauled to the surface by his companions, it 

 does not always end to the diver's advantage. He suffers 

 also from the pressure of the water, which frequently 

 forces the blood to his ears, nose, and mouth ; and so 

 terrible is the exhaustion, that a pearl-diver's career is 

 invariably a brief one, and prematurely terminated by 

 disease or death. 



When the boats, returning from the fishery, have 

 landed their cargoes of shells, each owner carries off his 

 share, which he piles on the shore, that the oysters may 

 perish and putrefy. In India it is the custom to spread 

 them out on mats at the bottom of a trench, and then 

 abandon them to the action of the sun's heat and the 

 atmosphere. It is not long before putrefaction com- 

 mences. Then a search is made for those which contain 

 pearls ; the animal matter is collected and boiled, and the 

 water carefully strained, so as to recover any pearls which 

 may have escaped the first inspection. Those which are 

 attached to the valves, the " clippers," as they are called, 

 remove with pincers or hammers, and they are used only 

 for setting. The others, which are usually quite spherical, 

 are polished, drilled, and threaded. They are first 

 sorted, however, according to their sizes, by passing them 

 through a series of copper sieves of different dimensions. 

 In stringing them, the natives make use of bodkins of 

 various magnitudes, and are careful to distinguish which 

 is the best side of each pearl, so as to bring that side 

 forward in the chaplet. 



In this delicate and minute work the Indians and 

 Chinese excel ; and in one day a man will pierce six hun- 

 dred large, or half that number of small, pearls. The 



