7o6 The American Naturalist. [August, 
The desire for precious stones is very intense in the East, 
chiefly on account of their supposed inherent virtues. They are 
worn as charms by the superstitious — and what Oriental is free 
from superstition ? Thus the greatest buyers are the wealthy 
high-caste natives, especially the Indian rajahs. They have their 
agents at every noted gem-mine, who have the picking of all 
that is found, and w^ho eagerly buy up everything of exceptional 
value. No really fine gem — fine in an Oriental's eyes — ever goes 
to Europe or to this country, unless by accident. European 
traders and their agents cannot, with their paltry offers, compete 
with the Indian princes, who pay immense sums for fine stones to 
be set in their crowns, on their fans, their sword-handles, their tur- 
bans, their very slippers. European and American dealers have 
to content themselves with third and fourth-rate specimens, which 
they palm off as marvels of Oriental finds upon their unsophisti- 
cated customers. During my stay in Ceylon the celebrated 
pearl-fishery near Putalam, on the north-western coast of the 
island, which had been prohibited for more than thirty years to 
give the oysters a chance to grow, as they had been nearly ex- 
terminated by unscrupulous parties, was resumed for a period of 
six weeks. During that time more than seven thousand basket- 
fuls of oysters were brought ashore, and quite a number of agents 
were on the spot ready to buy the pearls. Only four exception- 
ally fine pearls were found, which were all secured by the 
Maharajah of Jeypore, while the European agents had to do 
the best they could with inferior specimens, deformed, off-color, 
and seed-pearls. 
The value of the gems and pearls possessed by some of these 
rajahs, and to be found in the treasure-shrines of the temples, is 
something fabulous. For a long time it was a puzzle to me how 
these chiefs and priests could have accumulated such immense 
treasures — for I was tolerably sure that they could not have all 
been paid for in money or any other equivalent. T^inally I dis- 
covered the reason. It is well known that the natives of India, 
especially the Hindoos, are divided into castes. Of these castes 
there are, among the Hindoos, nominally four, but in reality more 
than twent}-, which are strictly separated from each other in a 
