THE PEARL FISHERIES OF CEYLON 
185 
is illicit and in violation of the fishery 
regulations, but is very difficult to sup- 
press. Guards have sometimes been em- 
ployed on each vessel, but as they are 
the friends of the divers and receive only 
33 cents a day for their services, there is 
every reason to believe that they require 
no large inducement not only to counte- 
nance, but actually to encourage, this 
fraudulent work. 
The government estimates that at times 
fully 25 per cent of the catch is illicitly 
■opened ; and, as the largest and most 
productive oysters are thus weeded out, 
the government losses in revenue have 
been considerable. It was computed that 
in 1905 not less than 15 million oysters 
were opened by the divers on the home- 
ward trips. These, at the average selling 
price for the season, were worth $250,000 
regardless of the contained pearls. The 
men resort to all kinds of expedients for 
concealing the pearls in order to avoid 
detection by the shore officials before 
whom they have to pass. 
DIVISION OI' THE SPOILS 
Under the arrangement that has pre- 
vailed for many years, the divers are al- 
lowed to retain one-third of their catch, 
to dispose of as they please. The gov- 
ernment retains the remainder and sells 
it at auction. 
The most important structures in the 
pearl town are the palisaded enclosures, 
known as the kottus, in which all of the 
pearl oysters are deposited and retained 
until disposed of. The fences are made 
of bamboo poles, and within the enclos- 
ures are bamboo sheds with thatched 
roofs of palm leaves. 
When the boats reach shore the oys- 
ters are quickly unloaded and taken at 
once to the near-by government kottus, 
where the catch of each boat is put in a 
separate compartment. The divers count 
their catch into three piles containing the 
same number of oysters, and the govern- 
ment agent then selects the pile that shall 
go to the crew. 
The divers then emerge from the other 
(land) side of the kottus carrying their 
precious oysters, and are at once sur- 
rounded by a crowd of natives desirous 
of obtaining oysters in small quantities. 
The trade conducted by the divers is of 
a strictly retail nature, and it sometimes 
happens that a native — man, woman, or 
child — will buy on speculation a dozen 
or half a dozen oysters, or even a single 
one. The stock of the divers is usually 
eagerly sought and quickly bought. 
After disposing of their catch the 
divers spend the remainder of the day 
in eating, resting, bathing, and religious 
devotions. 
The government's share is carefully 
counted by clerks, and about sunset each 
day is put up and sold at auction at the 
court-house by the government agent. 
The unit of measure is a thousand, and 
a successful bidder may take one or many 
thousand at the price offered. During the 
night the oysters are carefully guarded, 
and next morning the buyers present 
their certificates of purchase, pay the 
price, and take their goods. 
ROTTING THE OYSTERS 
It is a very difficult matter to extract 
the pearls from perfectly fresh oysters 
either by sight or by touch, or by both 
combined ; consequently it has long been 
the practice to allow the decomposition 
of the soft parts before the search for 
the pearls is begun. The rotting process 
is exceedingly repulsive, and if the wear- 
ers of beautiful pearl jewelry realized 
the unspeakably filthy mass from which 
their gems had come, some of the more 
esthetic would shudder every time they 
beheld them. 
The oysters are piled into dugout ca- 
noes and covered with matting or else 
set aside in coarse sacks for 7 to 10 days. 
Bacterial putrefaction is supplemented 
by the work of blow-flies and their larvje, 
and at the end of the period stated the 
disintegration, decomposition, and diges- 
tion of the oysters have progressed so 
far that there is little left but pearls, 
shells, slime, and foreign matter adhering 
to the shells, together with a large vol- 
ume of maggots. The first step in the 
cleansing process is the flooding of the 
canoe to the brim ; then the naked na- 
tives, ranged on either side of the vessel, 
remove the shells, washing and rinsing 
them and removing any detritus in which 
a pearl may lodge. 
