ido 



J. HORNELL ON 



KiLAKARAI. 



The Muhammadan fishermen of Kilakarai and the neighbouring villages on the 

 south coast of Ramnad district, at the north-west corner of the Gulf of Mannar, con- 

 stitute the main diving force whenever a pearl fishery is held in Ceylon waters ; yearly 

 they spend some six months in north Ceylon waters fishing chank shells. Hence 

 their relations are most intimate with Ceylon and this may have determined the 

 outrigger canoe as the type of boat adopted here for general fishing purposes. But 

 while the true Ceylon outrigger in its typical form is largely used for trolling by 

 these men, the boats being imported ready for work from Ceylon, those engaged 

 in other methods of sea-fishing, except for pearl oysters, while agreeing in the 



Fig. 6. — A Kilakarai outrigger fishing-boat, with two booms. 



adoption of the outrigger principle, have shown marked ingenuity in modifying it 

 in several notable details, whereby it has become much more useful for general 

 purposes in contradistinction to the specialization adapted in Ceylon to one limited 

 and specific aim— that of trolling for large fish of the mackerel family. 



Two varieties of these modified outriggers exist, the one using a single pole to boom 

 out the outrigger, the other employing the normal two (figs. 6 and 7). The hull is a 

 simple Malabar dug-out canoe, with usually a narrow wash strake added vertically 

 — not flared. The rig is a simple squat lugsail of the same form as is employed 

 in the Tuticorin fishing canoes. No attempt is made to spread the canoe, so without 



