OF THE GULF OF MANAAK. 
115 
food is tlie Modiola, one of the worst enemies of the oyster ; 
so they themselves are more friends than foes to the oyster. 
Rays. 
Rays are a very different class of enemy. Of the several 
sorts said to infest the oyster banks, the one shown me was 
Trygon iiarnak. The divers feared them as enemies of the 
oyster more than anything, and deprecated their visits with 
remarkable earnestness. The short thick teeth are exceed- 
ingly powerful, and capable of crushing a full-grown oyster. 
I saw the shells of Turhinella rapa that had been bitten 
right across the body whorl, where there was a thickness of 
solid shell of \ inch in some, in others of j| of an inch, and 
that too disposed in the strongest form, that of an arch. 
The flatter thinner shell of the oyster would yield much 
more readily. The fishermen informed me that rays are not 
always present on the banks, but come in by shoals from 
the deep sea with the south-west monsoon. They are also 
on the banks during the fishing, and the larger ones are some- 
times mistaken for sharks and frighten the divers. Though 
their teeth argue destructive capabilities, I should have pre- 
ferred to learn their actual habits from the contents of their 
stomachs before endorsing the verdict against them. 
The native fisherfolk knowledge is remarkably good, and 
should never be neglected, but at the same time ahcays 
tested, for it is the accretion of ages not altering with the 
times. For instance, they hold firmly to this day the belief 
that had encrusted into a myth even in the days of Pliny 
that the pearl is formed by the oyster coming to the surface 
at dawn and taking in a drop of dew with the sun's rays ou 
it — about as correct as " around thee shall glisten the loveliest 
amber that ever the sorrowing sea-bird hath wept." 
