" CRUELTY TO ANIMALS." 347 



Tamil fishermen. The creatures are to be seen in the 

 market-place undergoing a most frightful mutilation ; the 

 plastron and its integuments having been previously re- 

 moved, and the animal thrown on its back, so as to dis- 

 play all the motions of the heart, viscera, and lungs. A 

 broad knife, from twelve to eighteen inches in length, is 

 first inserted at the left side, and the women, who are 

 generally the operators, introduce one hand to scoop out 

 the blood, which oozes slowly. 



Next the blade is passed round until the lower shell is 

 detached and placed on one side, and the internal organs 

 exposed in full action. A customer, as he applies, is 

 served with whatever part he selects, which is cut off and 

 sold by weight. Each of the fins is thus successively re- 

 moved, with portions of the fat and flesh the contortions 

 of the animal bearing witness to the agony it suffers. 

 And in this state it is allowed to lie for hours, writhing 

 in the sun, the heart and head being usually the last 

 pieces chosen ; and, till the head is cut off, it would seem 

 from the snapping of the mouth, and the opening and 

 closing of the eyes, that life is still present, though the 

 shell has been nearly divested of its contents. 



The tortoise-shell of commerce, which forms the staple 

 of so considerable an industry, is obtained from the 

 Hawksbill or Imbricated Turtle (Chelonia imbricata], a 

 native of the Asiatic and American seas, and occasionally 

 found in the Mediterranean. It derives one of its charac- 

 teristic names from the manner in which its scales over- 

 lap each other at their extremities, like tiles on the roof of 

 a building ; and the other from the narrowness and curva- 

 ture of its beak, resembling the bill of a hawk. Its shell 



