THE PEARL FISHERIES OF CEYLON 
183 
by And. 
THE FIRST TO LEAVE THE BANKS AETER THE MORNING'S DIVE 
or 20 oysters per dive, so the grounds 
are rarely stripped clean, so far as hu- 
man agency goes, 
A great deal of sentiment has been 
expended on the pearl-divers and the 
dangers they have to undergo, particu- 
larly from rapacious man-eating sharks. 
The writers of both poetry and fiction 
for centuries have played on the feelings 
of humanity in depicting the perilous 
life of the divers. As a matter of fact, 
there is no particular risk or hardship 
encountered by the Ceylon divers. 
Year after year, among the 3,000 to 
9.C00 divers engap'ed, not a single fatal 
or serious accident may occur. An Eng- 
lishman, who spent a number of years 
on the fishing grounds during the entire 
season, never had a glimpse of a single 
shark dangerous to man. An English 
official, who had a life-long experience 
in the Ceylon pearl fisheries, never knew 
of a single diver being killed by a shark, 
and heard of only one case and that ex- 
tremely doubtful. Still another Eng- 
lishman, writing in 1887, stated that it 
was "pretty certain that m the whole 
course of the Ceylon nshenes. only two 
human beings have fallen victims tc- 
these fierce fishes" (see also page 190). 
lEEIClT TAKING OF PEARLS 
On the trip from the fishing grounds tc 
the shore the divers and manducks have 
two to four hours of undisturbed leisure 
in which they improve the opportunity 
to open oysters and extract and concea' 
any pearls they may find. This practice 
