192 Pearls. 



sometimes they are left to putrefy in pits or closed 

 vessels, and when these are opened the decomposing 

 oysters are put into troughs, and the Pearls are 

 washed with sea-water. On other occasions however, 

 the shells are opened immediately, and the Pearls 

 forthwith extracted. The oysters, however, are 

 generally sold unopened, and as their contents are 

 alike unknown to both buyer and seller the tran- 

 saction takes more the form of a lottery than a 

 commercial exchange, — in fact the trade has in it 

 much of the spirit of gambling : many oysters may 

 be opened without yielding a single Pearl, whilst 

 on the other hand, one pair of shells may contain 

 a Pearl worth £'20 or £10, but very seldom of 

 higher value. 



The government has derived a large income 

 from this fishery, and it is protected by the strictest 

 regulations. Those places to be fished are marked 

 out with buoys carefully before the boats leave the 

 land, and are examined from time to time by 

 experienced divers. 



Vincent, in his "Commerce and Navigation of 

 the Ancients," (1807), speaks of Manaar, which was 

 the island of Epidorus, as- the centre of the Pearl 

 fishery. According to the " Periplus of the Erythrean 

 Sea," the Pearl-oysters are found only at this 



