PRODUCTS FROM THE SEA
.
349
many ‘dierent languages throughout the newspapers‘ of
the East-.
On the announced date a motley collection of
divers, pearl buyers, -speculators, moneylenders,
_
keepers and all manner of others, collect at the temporary
town of Marichchikkaddi, the headquarters of the shery.
‘
This lasts for anything up to three months andis carefully
controlled by the Government.
The boats With the‘diVers
go out every morning and have to return at the sound—of a»
gun about midday, the oysters being landed and the catch
immediately divided into three equal piles, two of which—
are taken by the Government and later sold by auction,
,
and the third by the divers.
The separation of the pearls
from the oysters is a slow and very disgusting business,
the oysters being left to rot, millions of y maggots assisting
‘
in the process.
After a weekthe}largest _pearlsare. picked
out by hand, the remaining‘lth with the smaller pearls
_
washed out of the shells and, after a series of further wash—'
ings, all the pearls gradually collected. '
-
.
'
The well—known Japanese culture pearl is not articial
suc—h as the ones discussed 1aærm this chapter,but atrue
.
pearl produced in the usual manner.
But-= instead of
_
waiting until a sand grain or a parasite chances to stimulate
'
_
the oyster’s activities, the japanese cultivator introduces a
small body into the oyster'around which the latter lays the
pearl Substance.
Theexact nature of theprocess is kept
-
& dose secret but takes several yéars._
,
…_
SHE_LLS
'
.
Shells have been employed for practical purposes,
for
-
decoration and as a medium of “exchange from very early
times, and are still largely used in all these ways by savage
tribes, and for. decorative purp05es by civi‘lized peoples.
The Money cowry ._(Cyjbmea moneta) has
been extensively
used in almost every part _of the world
for purposes of