62 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



times thirty or forty pearls, of which some may be worth 

 a sovereign on the spot. The small valueless seed-pearls 

 are burnt, and sold as pearl lime to the wealthy Malays, 

 to add to the betel and cabbage-nuts which they chew. 

 The Ceylonese mix the lustreless pearls with grain, and 

 feed their poultry with them, in whose crops the pearls 

 regain their former brilliancy after a few minutes' grind- 

 ing. The crops are slit up, and the pearls are taken out. 

 It is said to be done by other Indian races, but that the 

 pearls lose weight. f In India the priests of Buddha 

 keep up the strange belief as to the origin of pearls 

 which I have mentioned elsewhere, and make it a pre- 

 text for exacting what they term " charity oysters" from 

 the divers and boatmen of their faith for the use of 

 Buddha, who, when thus propitiated, will make the fish 

 yield more pearls in future seasons. J 



The pearl fishery of Ceylon in 1864 suffered con- 

 siderably, owing to an irruption of the skate fish, which 

 was said to have killed the oysters ; and the loss of re- 

 venue was calculated at £50,000. 



The common freshwater Unto {Unio tumidus), and 

 also Unio pictorum, both produce pearls, but they are 

 generally small, and of a bad colour; sometimes I have 

 found several in one shell, and, again, I have opened 

 many, and not been successful. 



A species of freshwater mussel, Anodonta cygnea, is 

 said to be eaten in the county of Leitrim by the pea- 

 santry, and Unionidm are eaten in the south of Europe, 

 either roasted in their shells and drenched with oil, or 

 covered with breadcrumbs and scalloped; and, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Wilhelm Gottlob Rosenhauer, Unio Reguienii 



* 'Voyage of the Novara,' toL i. p. 385. 



+ ' Household Words :' " My Pearl-fishing Expedition," vol. iii. p. 80. 



