ANIMAL PRODUCTS USED FOR DECORATIVE PURPOSES 399 



the knowledge acquired will form the basis of measures by 

 which the industry may be resuscitated. The first part of Herd- 

 man's Report on the Pearl- Oyster Fisheries of the. Gulf of 

 Manaar includes a very interesting historical sketch from which 

 the following extract is taken: " The pearl-fisheries of Ceylon, 

 India, and the Persian Gulf, yielding the highly prized 'Oriental' 

 pearl, are of very great antiquity. They are probably the most 

 ancient fisheries still in existence, and seem to be carried on at 

 the present day under very much the same conditions as 2000 or 

 perhaps even 3000 years ago. These fisheries are referred to by 

 various classical writers, and Pliny, after saying how highly valued 

 the pearls are at Rome, refers to Taprobane [Ceylon] as ' the 

 most productive of pearls of all parts of the world '. . . . But 

 the Singhalese records take us to still earlier times. According 

 to the * Mahawanso ', pearls figure in the list of native products 

 sent as a present from King Vijaya of Ceylon to his Indian 

 father-in-law in about 540-550 B.C.; and again when, in B.C. 306, 

 King Devanampiyatissa sent an embassy to India the presents 

 are said to include eight kinds of Ceylon pearls. The King's 

 Hall in the Brazen Palace at Anuradhapura (B.C. 161) is said 

 to have been decorated with native pearls. The mortar in the 

 ruins of Polonaruwa shows the remains of the pearl-oyster shells 

 which were used in its manufacture no doubt the refuse of an 

 early fishery. Many other references could be given. In the 

 eighth to eleventh centuries, trade in the East was in the hands 

 of the Persians and Arabs, and we find Arab writers alluding 

 to the pearls. We know also that they enriched the kings of 

 Ceylon in the days of Marco Polo (1291). One record, given 

 by Friar Jordanus, says that in 1330 about 8000 boats were 

 engaged in the pearl-fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar." 



From the remote times mentioned in the above extract down 

 to the present day the pearl-oysters have been collected by native 

 divers, but it is not improbable that dredging will ultimately 

 be the chief method employed. 



Pearls are formed within a number of bivalves besides the 

 one mentioned, nor are all of these marine, for the once famous 

 British pearls were obtained from Fresh water Mussels. Purple 

 pearls are formed within some of the Ark-Shells (Area). 



DECORATIVE PRODUCTS OF INSECTS (!NSECTA). There is not 

 much to mention with regard to this group of animals. The 



