n
they can't hold their breath any longer they come up again, and after a
little down they go once more, and so they go on all day].[NOTE 2] The
shells are in fashion like oysters or sea-hoods. And in these shells are
found pearls, great and small, of every kind, sticking in the flesh of the
shell-fish.

In this manner pearls are fished in great quantities, for thence in fact
come the pearls which are spread all over the world. And I can tell you
the King of that State hath a very great receipt and treasure from his
dues upon those pearls.

As soon as the middle of May is past, no more of those pearl-shells are
found there. It is true, however, that a long way from that spot, some 300
miles distant, they are also found; but that is in September and the first
half of October.

NOTE 1.--MAABAR (_Ma'bar_) was the name given by the Mahomedans at this
time (13th and 14th centuries) to a tract corresponding in a general way
to what we call the Coromandel Coast. The word in Arabic signifies the
Passage or Ferry, and may have referred either to the communication with
Ceylon, or, as is more probable, to its being in that age the coast most
frequented by travellers from Arabia and the Gulf.[1] The name does not
appear in Edrisi, nor, I believe, in any of the older geographers, and the
earliest use of it that I am aware of is in Abdallatif's account of Egypt,
a work written about 1203-1204. (_De Sacy, Rel. de l'Egypte_, p. 31.)
Abulfeda distinctly names Cape Comorin as the point where Malabar ended
and Ma'bar began, and other authority to be quoted presently informs us
that it extended to _Nilawar_, i.e. Nellore.

There are difficulties as to the particular locality of the port or city
which Polo visited in the territory of the Prince whom he calls Sondar
Bandi Davar; and there are like doubts as to the identification, from the
dark and scanty Tamul records, of the Prince himself, and the family to
which he belonged; though he is mentioned by more than one foreign writer
besides Polo.

Thus Wassaf: "Ma'bar extends in length from Kaulam to Nilawar, nearly 300
parasangs along the sea-coast; and in the language of that country the
king is called Devar, which signifies, 'the Lord of Empire.' The
curiosities of Chin and Machin, and the beautiful products of Hind and
Sind, laden on large ships which they call _Junks_, sailing like mountains
with the wings of the wind on the surface of the water, are always
arriving there. The we