ORDER UNIMUSCULOSA. 71 



Every schoolboy knows the story of Cleopatra having 

 dissolved a valuable pearl in vinegar, and afterwards 

 drunk it off, to show her ridiculous disregard of expense. 

 But the account may reasonably be doubted; for had the 

 acid been strong enough to dissolve the pearl, it would 

 have been impossible to drink it, and if it was weak 

 enough to drink, it would not have dissolved the pearl, 

 at least not until the lapse of a very considerable time. 



At the island of Ceylon the fishery for pearls is a 

 matter of great moment. The following is an account of 

 the mode in whicli it is conducted. 



The country round Aripo, on the north-western coast 

 of the island of Ceylon, is Hat, sandy, and barren, pre- 

 senting nothing to the eye but low brushwood, chiefly of 

 thorns and prickly pears (which are the plants that 

 nourish the cochineal insect*), and here and there 

 some straggling villages with a few cocoa-nut trees. 

 But Condatchy, three miles distant, where, in general, 

 nothing is to be seen but a few miserable huts, and a 

 sandy desert, becomes, during- the period of the pearl- 

 fishery, a populous town, several streets of which extend 

 upvvards of a mile in length (though, as the houses are 

 only intended as a shelter from the sun and rain, they 

 are very rudely constructed), and the scene, altogether, 

 resembles a crowded fair on the grandest scale. The 

 people most active in erecting huts and speculating in 

 the various branches of merchandise, are Mohammedans, 

 Cingalese (natives of Ceylon), and Hindoos from the 

 opposite coast of the continent of India. Apparently, 

 however, from their natural timidity, none of the Cinga- 

 lese are divers, and scarcely any of them engage in the 



* The insect from wlsicb our most beautiful scarlet dyes are pre* 

 pared. 



