el symbolizing purity. A few
million oysters are shipped to southern India, and some go to Jaffna and
Colombo; but the preponderating bulk is dealt with in the private
kottus in the outskirts of the camp belonging to the men who crowd the
auction room. To open fresh from the sea and scrutinize every part of
the oyster would be too slow a method to be applied to the business of
pearl-getting. The native who obtains a few dozen seeks shelter under
the first mustard-tree, and with dull-edged knife, dissects each bivalve
with a thoroughness permitting nothing to escape his eye.

The burning sun, bringing putrefaction and decay to the oyster, is the
operator's agency for securing what pearls his purchase may contain. For
a week or ten days the oysters are stacked in his private kottu, and the
process of disintegration is facilitated by swarms of flies and millions
of maggots. When the tropical sun can do no more, the contents of the
shells--putrid, filthy, and overpoweringly odoriferous--are gathered in
troughs and other receptacles to be put through a process of cleansing
by washing with water frequently drawn away. The residue, carefully
preserved, is picked over when dry by experts, working under the
watchfulness of owner or his deputy--and in this manner the pearls of my
lady's dainty necklace and the engagement ring are wrested from nature.

[Illustration: THE LATE MAHARAJAH OF PATIALA IN HIS PEARL REGALIA]

Sometimes an impatient speculator is seen with his coolies on the beach
carefully washing vatfuls of "matter," perhaps employing a dugout canoe
as a washing trough. Wherever the work is done the stench is almost
overpowering, and the odors defy neutralization. The wonder is that some
dread disease of the Orient does not make a clean sweep of the city's
population. The medical officers claim that the malodorous fumes are not
dangerous, and experience has taught these officials to locate the
compounds, wherein millions of oysters are to decompose, in positions
where the trade winds waft the smells seaward or inland, without greatly
affecting the camp's health. The British official whose olfactory organ
survives a season at the pearl camp deserves from his home government at
least the honor of knighthood.

Interesting as Marichchikkaddi is to the person making a study of the
conduct of unusual industries and the government of Eastern people, the
medical officer looms important as the functionary shouldering a greater