10 PEARLS AND PARASITES 



In the meantime preparations on a large scale have to 

 be made. 



' On land, which is at the moment a desert, an elaborate set 

 of temporary Government buildings have to be erected for 

 receiving and dealing with many millions of oysters and their 

 valuable if minute contents. Court-houses, prisons, barracks, 

 revenue offices, markets, residences for the officials, streets of 

 houses and shops for perhaps thirty thousand inhabitants, and 

 a water-supply for drinking and bathing for these same people, 

 have to be arranged for. Lastly, but, in view of the dreadful 

 possibility of the outbreak of plague and cholera, not least, 

 there are elaborate hospitals to be provided.' 



By March or April some hundreds of large fishing 

 vessels have assembled at Manaar ; and a population 

 w^hich varies during the next two months between 

 25,000 and 40,000 souls has gathered together. 



The fishing-boats leave early in the morning for 

 their respective stations ; and, on reaching them, the 

 Arab and Indian divers descend, staying under water 

 from fifty to eighty seconds, and eagerly scooping up 

 the oysters and depositing them in baskets slung 

 round their necks. By midday the divers are worn 

 out ; and at noon a gun is fired from the master- 

 attendant's vessel as a signal for return. The run 

 home may take some hours, according to the distance 

 and the wind ; and it is during this time that a con- 

 siderable number of pearls are said to be abstracted. 

 The men on the boats are occupied with the sorting 

 of the oysters and cleaning them of useless stones, 

 seaweed, and other objects which are gathered with 

 them. The finest pearls lie just within the shell, em- 

 bedded in the edge of the mantle ; and these readily 

 slip out and are concealed about the person of the 

 finder. The Government does what it can to check 

 peculation and keep a guard on each boat ; but, in 

 spite of all its efforts, there seems no doubt that many 

 of the 'finest, roundest, and best-coloured pearls' 



