No. 34.— 1887.] PEARL FISHERIES OF CEYLON. 



39 



vadivu, or " beautiful." The pearls of these three sieves (excluding 

 generally those of the Madanku class) are also valued by chevvu 

 weight, so that the vadivu baskets are, in a measure, chevvu baskets 

 also. 



Note B. — Like all other things of the kind in the world, these 

 "sieves" or "baskets" are sometimes made the means of deception. 

 Pearl merchants sometimes have one set of sieves for buying with and 

 another set for selling with. Indeed it is obvious that if the holes be 

 of too large a size, a pearl which should properly belong (say) to the 

 first sieve in size, might pass through it and be reckoned as of only the 

 second sieve in size, and its value be thereby depreciated. 



However, there is a rule for determining the proper size of the 

 sieve- holes. It is this for the first " sieve " or " basket ": — 



Rule. — Suppose one has twenty perfectly spherical and equal-sized 

 A'yi pearls of such size as to weigh together exactly 1 kalanchu 

 (= 20 manchddi) ; then the diameter of any one of these pearls 

 is the diameter proper for the holes of the first sieve. Hence this sieve 

 is called usually the sieve or basket "20," by which number it is 

 usually known and indicated. 



Similarly, the second sieve is called the basket " 30," from the fact 

 that the diameter of its holes should be that of any one of 30 equal and 

 spherical pearls weighing together one Jcalanchu ; and so on through 

 all the sieves, which are usually known by the following numbers : — 



20, 30, 50, 80 ... Chevvup peddi 



100, 200, 400 ... Vadivuppeddi 



600, 800, 1,000 ... Tulpeddi 

 though the rule does not apply very strictly to any but the first 

 four sieves, the pearls in the others being so small that a few over or 

 under the numbers mentioned will not turn the scale. 



Stewart has made a curious mistake in his " Account of the Pearl 

 Fisheries." He says the first basket has twenty holes, and is therefore 

 called the " 20 basket," and so of the others, as if this would fix the 

 size of the holes. The fact, too, is, the baskets have not " 20," " 30," 

 &c, holes. 



Note C. — With regard to the weights in use, Mr. Dyke has 

 informed me that pearl merchants sometimes make them also a means 

 of deception. Being desirous on one occasion of getting a true set 

 of weights, he experienced great difficulty in doing so, and finally 

 succeeded only by a stratagem. 



