M ANAR. 237 
their guardians. It muft not however be imagined that 
thefe conjurers are altogether the dupes of their own arts, 
or that they accompany their votaries to the filhery merely 
from an anxious care for their fafety; their principal pur- 
pofe in going thither is, if poflible, to filch a valuable pearl. 
As this is the cafe, it is evident that the fuperintendant of 
the filhery muft look upon their voyages with a jealous 
eye; fuch, however, is the devoted attachment of their 
votaries, that he is obliged to pafs it over in filence, or at 
leaft to conceal his fufpicions of their real intentions. He 
muft alfo never hint a doubt of their power over the /harks, 
as this might render the divers fcrupulous of committing 
themfelves to the deep, or indeed deter them from fifiling 
at all. The conjurers reap here a rich harveft; for, be- 
fides being paid by the government, they get money and 
prefents of all forts from the black merchants and thofe 
fuccefsful in fifiling up the oyfters. The appearance of a 
fmgle /hark is fufficient to fpread difmay among the whole 
body of divers ; for, as foon as one of them fees a /hark, 
he inftantly gives the alarm to his companions, who as 
quickly communicate it to the other boats ; a panic fpee- 
dily feizes the whole, and they often return to the bay 
without fi/hing any more for that day. The/harks which 
create all this alarm fonietimes turn out to be nothing 
more than a rtiarp (tone on which the divers happen to 
alight. As falfe alarms excited in this manner prove very 
injurious to the progrefs of the filhery, every means is 
employed to afcertain whether they are well or ill found¬ 
ed ; and, if the Latter be the cafe, the authors of them are 
punilhed. 
The divers are paid differently, according to their pri¬ 
vate agreement with the boat-owners. They are paid ei¬ 
ther in money, or w ith a proportion of the oyfters caught, 
which they take the chance of opening on their own ac¬ 
count ; the latter is the method molt commonly adopted. 
The agreements with the people who hire out the boats 
are conducted much in the fame manner. They contrail: 
either to receive a certain fum for the ufe of their boats, 
or pay the chief farmer of the banks a certain fum for per- 
miflion to filh on their own account. Some of thofe who 
purfue the latter plan are very fuccefsful, and become rich 5 
while others are great lofers by the fpeculation. Oyfter- 
lotteries are carried 0/1 here to a great extent; they con- 
lift of purchafing a quantity of the oyfters unopened, and 
running the chance of either finding or not finding pearls 
in them. The European officers and gentlemen, who at¬ 
tend here upon duty or through curiofity, are particularly 
fond of thefe lotteries, and very frequently make pur- 
chafes of this fort. The boat-owners and merchants are 
very apt to lofe many of the beft pearls while the boats 
are on their return to the bay from the banks 5 as the oyf¬ 
ters, when alive and left for fome time undilturbed, fre¬ 
quently open their /hells of their own accord ; a pearl may 
then be eafily difcovered, and the oylter prevented by 
means of a bit of grafs or foft wood from again clofing its 
/hell, till an opportunity offers of picking out the pearl. 
Thofe fellows who are employed to fearch among the filh 
alfo commit many depredations, and even fwallow the 
pearls to conceal them ; when this is fufpebled, the plan 
followed by the merchants is to lock the fellows up, and 
give them ftrong emetics and purgatives, which have fre¬ 
quently the effed of difcovering the ftolen goods. Ano¬ 
ther method of deceit is the following : When a boat- 
owner employs a number of hired people to collect pearls, 
he places over them an infpeftor of his own, in whom he can 
confide. The hirelings previoufly agree that one of them 
/hall play the part of a thief, and bear the puni/hment, to 
give his comrades an opportunity of pilfering. If one of 
the gang happens to meet with a large pearl, he makes a 
Jign to his accomplice, who inftantly conveys away one 
ot fmall value, purpofely, in fuch a manner as to attraft 
notice. On this the infpettorand the reft of the men take 
the pearl from him : he is then punilhed, and turned out 
of their company. In the mean time, while he is making 
a dreadful uproar, the real thief fecures the valuable pearl, 
Vol. XIV. No. 97a, 
and afterwards, the booty is (hared with him who fuffered 
for them all. 
As foon as the oyfters are taken out of the boats, they 
are carried by the different people to whom they belong, 
and placed in holes or pits dug in the ground to the depth 
of about two feet, or in fmall fquare places cleared and 
fenced round for the purpofe ; each perl'on having his own 
feparated divifion. Mats are fpread below them toprevenc 
the oyfters from touching the earth ; and here they are 
left to die and rot. As loon as they have paffed through 
a ftate of putrefaction, and have become dry, they are ea¬ 
fily opened without any danger of injuring the pearls, 
which might not be the cafe it they were opened frefh, as 
at that time to do fo requires great force. On the (hell 
being opened, the oylter is minutely examined for the 
pearls; it is ufual even to boil the oylter, as the peat!, 
though commonly found in tlie /hell, is not unfrequently 
contained in the body of the filh it lei f. 
The (tench occafioned by the oyfters being left to pu¬ 
trefy is intolerable ; and remains fora long while after the 
filhery is over. It corrupts the atmofphere for feveral miles 
round Condatchy, and renders the neighbourhood of .that 
country extremely unpleafant till the monfoons and vio¬ 
lent fouth-weft winds fet in and purify the air. The nau- 
feous fmell, however, is not able to overcome the hopes of 
gain ; for months after the filhing-feafon, number of peo¬ 
ple are to be feen earneftly fearching and poring over the 
Zands and places where the oyfters had been laid to pu¬ 
trefy ; and fome are now and then fortunate enough to 
find a pearl that amply compenfates their trouble in 
fearching after them. In 1797, a cooly, or common fel¬ 
low of the loweft clafs, got by accident the moll valuable 
pearl feen that feafon, and fold it for a la^ge fum. 
The pearls found at this fifhery are of a whiter colour 
than thofe got in the gulf of Ormus, on the Arabian coaft $ 
but in other refpeHs are not accounted fo pure, or of l'uch 
an excellent, quality ; for, though the white pearls are 
more efteemed in Europe, the natives prefer thofe of a yel- 
lowi/h or golden call. Off Tutucoreen, which lies on the 
Coromandel coaft, nearly oppofite to Condatchy, there is 
another filhery; but the pearls found there are much in¬ 
ferior to thofe two fpecies we have mentioned, being tainted 
with a blue or greyilh tinge. In preparing the pearls, par¬ 
ticularly in drilling and ltringing them, the black people 
are wonderfully expert. We were very much ltruck witli 
the inftrument they employ in drilling,as well as the dex¬ 
terity with which they ufe it. A machine made of wood, 
and of a ffiape refembling an obtufe inverted cone, about 
fix inches in length, and four in breadth, is fupported 
upon three feet, each twelve inches long. In the upper 
flat fur face of this machine holes or pits are formed to re¬ 
ceive the larger pearls, the finaller ones being beat in with 
a little wooden hammer. The drilling-inltruments are 
fpindles of various fizes, according to that of the pearls ; 
they are turned round in a wooden head by means of a bow- 
handle, to which tlyry are attached. The pearls being 
placed in the pits which we have already mentioned, and 
the point of the fpindie adjufted to them, the workman 
preffes on the wooden head of the machine with his left 
hand, while his right is employed in turning round the 
bow-handle. During the procefs of drilling, he occali- 
onally moiltens the pearl by dipping the little flfiger of his 
right hand in a cocoa-nut filled with water, which is placed 
by him for that purpofe ; this he does with a dexterity and 
quicknefs which fcarcely impedes the operation, and can 
only be acquired by much praftice. They have alfo a va¬ 
riety of other inftruments both for cutting and drilling 
the pearls. To clean, round, and polilh them to that ftate 
in which we fee them, a powder made of the pearls them¬ 
felves is employed. Thefe different operations occupy a 
great number of the black men in various parts of the 
illand. In the black town of Columbo in particular, 
many of them may every day be feen at this work, which 
is well worth the attention of any European who is not 
already acquainted with it. 
3 U 
As 
