"Slowly the dawn came and revealed the gray, throbbing waters of the Gulf of Manaar, with red-and-white flags bobbing up and down at irregular intervals. It looked for all the world like a gathering for a regatta" (see text, page 161).

water, the flutter of gay-colored cloths and turbans hung on spars and rigging, the muscular brown bodies shining in the sunshine or gleaming in the water.

THE ARAB HOLDS HIS NOSE WITH A CLIP,

THE TAMIL USES HIS FINGERS

The divers are chiefly Tamils from southern India, and Arabs, the latter being the more efficient. The Tamil makes a terrible ado about it. If he descends and finds few oysters, instead of trying again, he raises his voice to heaven with shouts of "Sippi ille!" (No oysters!) The Arab's motto is, "It's dogged as does it." With out any noise or commotion, he goes down into the depths and works swiftly and perseveringly, bringing in far more oysters than the excitable Tamil.

There is a difference in the methods of

the divers, although they both go down in the same way. The manduck controls two ropes. A stone or metal "sinker" is attached to the one, a net basket to the other. The diver descends with one foot on the sinker and the second rope and net bag in his hand. Arrived at sea bottom, he gathers the oysters and throws them into the bag; then he pulls at the rope and the manduck hauls him up to the surface.

The Tamil does not hold the rope till he reaches the surface; he begins to swim. The Arab comes up to the surface holding the rope, and in this way saves time. The Arab puts on a nose-clip; the Tamil holds his nose with finger and thumb.

The effect of an Arab diver rising to the surface is very strikingly shown in the illustration on page 170. The man

Unlike the large, thick-shelled oysters of the South Seas, Australia, the Philippines, and Burma, which produce the mother-of-pearl of commerce, the Ceylon pearl oysters are small, the maximum size being four inches, and the shells are so thin that they may be crushed between the fingers of an average man.

The Arab wears a nose-clip when diving, the Tamil holds his nose with finger and thumb

(see text, page 164).

The average time under water for the Arab diver is from 60 to 70 seconds, and the normal maximum does not exceed 90 seconds. The Tamil and Moormen average from 35 to 50 seconds. There is a well-authenticated case of an Arab who remained in water seven fathoms deep for 109 seconds. Many preposterous stories of long periods under water have been given credence, and the more ancient the account the longer the time credited. One author in 1803 declared that the average time for divers to remain submerged "does not much exceed two minutes, yet there are instances where they have remained under water four or even five minutes." A writer of 1798 recorded that he saw a diver remain under seven minutes, and a Dutch anatomist of 1672 wrote that he observed divers who worked under water for half an hour! A 14th century author declared that "some remain down an hour, others two hours, others less."

looks like a brown frog, as he comes up through the water.

As one watches the divers at work, one is reminded of Browning's lines from "Paracelsus":

Are there not

dear Michal, Two points in the adventure of a diver,

One-when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge,
One-when, a prince, he rises with his pearl?

The average time that a diver stays under water is between 60 and 70 seconds, but cases are known in which he has remained below for nearly two minutes.

The divers work in pairs, and their

TYPES OF MEN WHO GO DOWN IN THE SEA FOR PEARLS

Four distinct racial types are represented among the Ceylon pearl divers: the Tamils, most of whom come from the coast of the Madras Presidency, India; Moormen, drafted from the villages of the Madura coast; Malays from the Malabar coast, and Arabs from Ceylon's capital, Colombo, and from Jaffna.

shells are packed into bags on the decks of the dhoneys. It is fascinating to watch the muscular brown figures at work in the water, and the manducks outlined against the sky pulling at the ropes.

The Arab divers haul themselves out of the water onto the decks of the dhoneys with superb ease, even after making so many descents that one would imagine they were exhausted. The muscles stand out on their shining brown bodies and the skin gleams like polished bronze.

One man I remember above all, a magnificent figure, towering above the rest, with a scrap of cotton loin cloth as his only apparel, save a large key which hung on a cord round his waist. There was something ludicrous in the key, attached to someone so devoid of any apparent possessions. Then I pictured him leaving his little home, say at Basra, locking the front door, casting a longing look at his

date palms and girding on his latch key. Let us hope he returned with many pearls, or the proceeds of them, and the key.

THE SHARK-CHARMER HAS LOST HIS JOB

In some cases the divers discharge water and even blood from their mouth, ears, and nostrils; but, watching them close at hand, I did not detect any of these distressing symptoms. The men seemed perfectly comfortable and, in the case of the Arabs, thoroughly contented. A good diver can make 40 or 50 descents in a day.

It is astonishing that they are not attacked by sharks, but no case of such an attack occurred during the fishery. In old days the service of a shark-charmer was employed, but this superstition seems to have "gone west." Many Arabs have a verse of the Koran tied round the arm, neck, or wrist as a protection from sharks. At noon the "hooter" sounds and div