The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-08
PEARL FISHING IN CEYLON
HOW A STRANGE INDUSTRY rs
"a. CARRIED on. lsass.,

Town Made Up Of Pearl se~ekers-Idno
ran OF the Red Sea and Persian Gulf
Mania for Gambling Methods the
Same To-day e. In SolomOnis Time
AL night tire littio steamship Bhadra
has been alowly making her way up the
Ceylon coast from Colombo TO tho Gulf
of Manar. As tao de- vi comes up sud
denly we find ourselves slipping through
the pearl fishery fleet with the divers wait
ing for the suns warmer rays before be-
ginning operations. Half an hour later
we have made tho sandy beach at March,
ohikadde, and everything around tells us
plainly that we are in. Pearl Town
There is a heavy nauseating odor hang
Ing in the air, writes u Colombo corre-
~spondent of the London Express, rolling
along in heavy surges and making its
presence felt like something tangible;
IL Is a terrible smell, impossible to de-
scribe, and to be smelled nowhere else
In the w~orld-tbe Marichchikadde odor,
the essence OF millions of rotting Oysters,
for that is the way the dazzling Orient
pearl, the gem Of the East, is obtained,
We walk up from the beach to the Euro
pean quarters OF Pearl Town." and before
us, where a month ago was nothing but
the waste of burning silver sand and the
haunts OF the jackal, the kite and the
scorpion, now stretches a busy town OF
10000 inhabitants. a mushroom city to live
through a strenuous six weeks of toll and
money getting, OF hard labor and high
gambling, and then to vanish and leave
its debris to the jackals.
1t is peopled by the scum Of the East,
the wastrels Of the Orient, the rifratf of the
Red Sea littoral and the Persian Gulf-35 900
Nf iNn ttnlilEt ITt4AEt GnIE NJ hnhnT m med
who would as readily knife a neighbor
as whittle open a pearl oyster. And this
heterogeneous GRO wd. collected with the
single aim OF getting great wealth in a rush.
Is ruled with d ready but perfect justice
by a mere handful OF Englisnmen-six
civilians and a small posse Of native police.
And these six men carry out the cltys
whole administration
There are the police court, the hospital
and The cemetery. The sanitary arrange
the crowd halls from the cholera homes
and the plague spots Of Asia, and an put
break would be disaster. The bank is
there. the post and Geographic office. the
auctioneer's hammer and the outside
market"-eSerything essential for the great;
Town is a gambler, yet serious crime Is
scarce, for they are too hard worked to
fight.
The pearl divers life is a strenuous n
At 2 A.. N. the camp gun fires, and before
dawn the Arabs, in their long cloaks and
on the beach. Amid much shouting the
fishing feet of boats OF all sizes and shapes
known from Jeddah to Koweit M Bahrein
TO Karikal puts of for the pearl banks.
The sun rising over the land givesa golden
glow to the bellying sails, which. lying
Just of the beach, are in rich contrast to
the turquoise sea. In a couple Of hours
the boats are over the bank appointed to
be f1shed, which is marked out by buoyed
flags. Each craft is crowded with men,
and as we step ABOARD one from the super
intendent's launch an interesting scene 10
before us.
The lateen sail of the boat Is
lowered and slowed along the boom, over
which the divers v~ari-shaped and many
colored garments hang in the sun to warm;
nnd sacks for the oysters, while temporary
bulwarks enable the "manduksn to attend
TO the divers proper, and scattered over
the sea around us are 800 such craft.
Here is a finely built son OF the Prophet
Just starting, His costume is Of the scan
test and consists chiefly Of a bone nose
clip to keep the water out and an open net
around his neck for the oysters. He drops
over the side, plants his feet on his sink
stone, grasps its rope in his hands, takes
foremost to the bottom. Watch him there,
blue water. He leaves his stone, but main
tains his hand line in his hand, while his
"manduk' on deck holds the other end;
half crawling, half swimming, like a big
gathering In the oysters as he moves.
Will he never come up2 1t seems to us,
watching, like a. age. Suddenly the line
quivers, the "manduk' hauls In, and a
dripping head, gasping frantically for air,
up from the depths. Eighty-fve
EaOnnH9 Einca he wont down fhnSR fhiFfU |
feet, working hard the whole time for his fat
haul of oysters. A slight pause for air,
and down he goes again. Thus with short
periods of rest the divers work all the
morning until the monday gun stops all
Then it is up anchor, and a wild race for
follows. The wind is strong and a
favorable one, and those huge sails bend
the raking rnasts as the crews make every
effort to cover the distance and beach their
boats first.
The return Of the feet is the signal for
much excitement ashore, from where the
q advancing. boats look lite a cloud of great
gray sea doves rushing over the waves to
the beach. The boats land and the divers
their takes. Each diver divides his oysters
into three equal portions, any two OF which
the government servant take as the gov
eminent property, the third being the divers
share.
Inc Seylon pearl nshery is older than
the hills for in Solomon's time 1t was flourish
ing, and to-day the methods of obtaining
the pearls are precisely the Canoes
made Of followed out trunks, with no seams,
are placed in light sheds, and filed with
thousands Of oysters, which are left TO rot.
A short time in this tropio heat sufices, |
and the millions of blue bottlefy maggots,
'~vernjn bred Of putrefacted slime" com.
plete the work, till nothing is left but dry
oyster shell. sand and pearls. These are
washed, the shells picked over
and the waste containing the gems is care
fully winnowed by girls.