Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 103 



shaped sea-gods, or Nagas.*^ These mythological creatures 

 — gods of water, thunder, rain, and wind — were believed 

 to have their abode in certain ponds and rivers, and 

 especially in splendid palaces at the bottom of the sea. 

 Hence we find many curious stories in the literature of 

 these countries. In Oldham's work " The Sun and the 

 Serpent" (London, 1905, p. 61), allusion is made to the 

 Nagas of southern India living under the sea in a place 

 called the land of gems."" Legge, in the " Sacred Books 

 of the East" (vol. xl., p. 211), quotes a legend from 

 • Shuangtze, a writer of the 4th century B.C., who says: 

 " Near the Ho river there was a poor man, who supported 

 his family by weaving rushes. His son, when diving in a 

 deep pool, found a pearl worth a thousand ounces of 

 silver. The father said : ' Bring a stone and beat it to 

 pieces, a pearl of this value must have been in a pool 

 nine khung deep and under the chin of the black dragon. 

 That you were able to get it must have been owing to 

 your liaving found him asleep. Let him awake, and the 

 consequences will not be small.'"" Another old Chinese 

 account of the Lien-chan district, in the Canton province 

 (Kwantung), states : " In the sea there is an island with a 

 lake, into which the barbarous natives dive for shells ; 

 some years they are abundant, and in others scarce. 

 There is a myth amongst the fishermen of a walled city 

 at the bottom, guarded by monsters, containing pearls of 

 large size and splendour, but which cannot be obtained 

 for the guards ; small ones, growing outside the city walls 

 like grass, being the only ones obtainable."'" 



"' On the subject of the Chinese dragon, see Dr. M. W. de Visser, 

 " The Dragon in China and Japan," Amsterdam, 1913. 

 "'^ W. J. Perry, op. cit., p. 11, quoting Oldham. 

 "■■' Kunz and Stevenson, op. di., p. 302, quoting Legge. 



"•' F. Hague, " On the Natural and Artificial production of Pearls in 

 China,"yw<r«. Roy. .-\siat. Soc. G. B. 6f /., vol. xvi., pt. 2, .-Vrt. xv., p. 281, 



