174 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



is equally plentiful on the east coast. At Pondicherry they 

 are cured and dressed in ground-nut oil, than which none 

 purer nor sweeter could be used ; and this can be done cheaply 

 enough to defy adulteration. These are for exportation to 

 the mother country (France) ; and they are better appreci- 

 ated there than they are in England, where people — the bulk 

 of them — seem to like their sardines large, and preserved 

 exclusively in Lucca or olive oil, so that they probably get 

 very few genuine at all, their so-called ' sardines ' more 

 likely being sprats. 



Of the constant but minor industries carried on all round 

 the coasts, the pearl fisheries are worthy of mention. In 

 our neighbourhood the native way of cleaning the pearls, 

 after the shells had been opened by boiling, was curiously 

 primitive but effective. The plan was to mix them with 

 rice and grain, which was then thrown to the fowls — to a 

 fowl rather, who picked up every pearl and seed without 

 discriminating. In an hour or two's time the fowl was 

 killed, and owing to the stomach's action the pearls would be 

 found in it perfectly purified, white, and glistening. In 

 some places on the east coast they open the shells by burn- 

 ing, thereby, to our thinking, quite destroying the beauty 

 and colour of the pearls within. Only the very poor engage 

 in this industry ; for, though most laborious, it scarcely 

 repays the toil expended on it, and ropes of the tiny seed 

 pearls, with dozens of strands, are to be bought for a very 

 small sum. The richer natives use them lavishly on their 

 attire, having their sleeveless velvet coats, their slippers, 

 and belts heavily embroidered with the pearls in masses, 

 while their caps, constantly worn, may be adorned with the 

 loveliest pearl tassels without attracting attention amongst 

 their own countrymen. 



The fisher-folk — Catamarans as they are called, after their 

 boats, so named — of the Madras beach are said to belong 

 to a very low order of humanity, but I must own I noticed 



