736 Pearls and Pearl Fisheries. (July, 
advantage of the tendency to games of chance inherent in the 
oriental mind, the losses, if any, are distributed among a large 
number of petty traders. 
The shores of the Gulf of Kondachai present, during the sea- 
son of the fishery, a remarkable assembly which has been graphi- 
cally described by Percival, Frédé and others, A floating popu- 
lation of ten to fifteen thousand is attracted by the opportunity 
for speculation and trade. These protect themselves from the 
night air by tents and temporary huts as near to the landing- 
place of the boats as possible. -When the afternoon gum pro- 
claims the return of the fishing fleet, a motley crowd rushes to 
the shore to meet it. The contractors or sub-lessees, usually 
dark, keen-looking Parsees or Malays, hail their boats in half a 
dozen languages to learn the result of the day’s work; Hindoo 
sorcerers, who, for a consideration will chain the appetite of the 
shark and send the diabolical sting ray on an errand to Bombay; 
jewelers of high and low degree, from the millionaire of Benares 
to the itinerant peddler who fashions you a ring out of a half 
sovereign before your eyes; vendors of cakes, confections, rice, 
dates, fruit, lentils, ghee and barbarous varieties of pies; all cry- 
ing their wares at the top of their lungs in twenty different dia- 
lects; Merry Andrews, jugglers, gymnasts, tamers of wild beast 
and serpents; Singhalese, Malays, Hindoos, Papuans, Africans, 
Kanakas, Arabs, Englishmen; honest, brown Marava sailors 1 
full dress of a breech clout and earrings; yellow Chinese in vant 
ing nankin robes, most acute of bargainers, most adroit of 
thieves. 
The country away from the beach is low, sandy and ban 
abandoned during a large part of the year and at no time inviting. 
Along the margin of the strand stretch heaps upon hap 
dead and refuse shells, the accumulation of centuries. wih e 
blue Indian sea to the west, with myriads of tents, oftem rich ™ 
color and valuable in fabric, for a background; the white be 
ment buildings, the motley booths, the fleet of myriad hoe ad 
boats rocking gently on the summer sea, and the seething eee the 
in and about it all—the scene is perhaps unique eve? pa 
“ sunrise-land.” 
The description, however, would be inadequate if it omitted * 
mention the horrid exhalations which infect the air from T 
thousands of decaying shell-fish, thrown into the sea only to 
