_Gildemeister_, p. 185; _Nelson_, Pt. II. p. 27
seqq.; _Taylor's Catalogue Raisonne_, III. 386-389.)

Ma'bar is mentioned (_Ma-pa-'rh_) in the Chinese Annals as one of the
foreign kingdoms which sent tribute to Kublai in 1286 (supra, p. 296);
and Pauthier has given some very curious and novel extracts from Chinese
sources regarding the diplomatic intercourse with Ma'bar in 1280 and the
following years. Among other points these mention the "five brothers who
were Sultans" (_Suantan_), an envoy _Chamalating_ (Jumaluddin) who had
been sent from Ma'bar to the Mongol Court, etc. (See pp. 603 seqq.)

NOTE 2.--Marco's account of the pearl-fishery is still substantially
correct. _Bettelar_, the rendezvous of the fishery, was, I imagine, PATLAM
on the coast of Ceylon, called by Ibn Batuta _Batthala_. Though the centre
of the pearl-fishery is now at Aripo and Kondachi further north, its site
has varied sometimes as low as Chilaw, the name of which is a corruption
of that given by the Tamuls, _Salabham_, which means "the Diving," i.e.
the Pearl-fishery. Tennent gives the meaning erroneously as "the Sea of
Gain." I owe the correction to Dr. Caldwell. (_Ceylon_, I. 440; _Pridham_,
409; _Ibn Bat._ IV. 166; _Ribeyro_, ed. Columbo, 1847, App. p. 196.)

[Ma Huan (_J. North China B.R.A.S._ XX. p. 213) says that "the King (of
Ceylon) has had an [artificial] pearl pond dug, into which every two or
three years he orders pearl oysters to be thrown, and he appoints men to
keep watch over it. Those who fish for these oysters, and take them to the
authorities for the King's use, sometimes steal and fraudulently sell
them."--H.C.]

The shark-charmers do not now seem to have any claim to be called
Abraiaman or Brahmans, but they may have been so in former days. At the
diamond mines of the northern Circars Brahmans are employed in the
analogous office of propitiating the tutelary genii. The shark-charmers
are called in Tamul _Kadal-Katti_, "Sea-binders," and in Hindustani
_Hai-banda_ or "Shark-binders." At Aripo they belong to one family,
supposed to have the monopoly of the charm. The chief operator is (or was,
not many years ago) paid by Government, and he also received ten oysters
from each boat daily during the fishery. Tennent, on his visit, found the
incumbent of the office to be a Roman Catholic Christian, but that did not
seem to affect the exercise or the validity of his functions. It is
remarkable that when Tennent wrote, not more tha