they
wish in multiples of iooo as before. If this does not exhaust the
oysters, the bidding on the remainder is started up again, and so on
until all are sold.1 No one knows at the time whether he is buying a fortune in gems or only worthless shells.
The
prices at which the oysters are sold at auction may differ greatly from
the estimated valuation of the samples secured in the February
examination. For instance, in 1905 the valuation of the South
Mada-ragam oysters was Rs. 17.86 per 1000, yet the auction sales on the
first day began at Rs.53 and went up to Rs.61 per 1000, or three times
the valuation ; and about the same general proportion of increase
prevailed for the oysters from the remaining banks, a result of great
advances in the market for pearls.
The
auction prices for the different lots and from day to day are fairly
constant. But the shrewd Indian merchants know their business well and
keep in close touch with the yield, so that there are many variations
in the selling price that are puzzling to the uninitiated. A somewhat
higher estimation is placed on the oysters from certain banks, and also
on those from rocky portions of a particular reef, owing to their
reputation for yielding a larger percentage of pearls. The estimation
of particular oysters varies to some extent according to the amount of
adhering rock and coral growth. As already shown, the prices in 1906
covered the remarkable range of from Rs.20 to 309 per 1000.
Superstitious belief in luck also has its influence, and a buyer may
consider a certain day as unfavorable for him and abstain from bidding
on that occasion; or considering a particular day as lucky, he may bid
very high to secure a considerable portion of the sales.
The
prices in different seasons vary greatly. In i860, the average was Rs.
134.23 per 1000, which was unprecedentedly large; the nearest to this
was Rs.79.07 in 1874 and Rs.49 in 1905. In 1880, the average price per
1000 was only Rs.n, which was the lowest ever recorded. The records for
individual days greatly exceed these limits. The highest figures at
which oysters have sold on any one day was Rs.309 per 1000 in 1906, the
equivalent for each oyster of io^4 cents in American money. In 1874,
the price reached Rs.210 per 1000, and in 1905, the maximum price was
Rs.124, or about 4)4 cents for each oyster.
The
oyster-buyers are principally wealthy Chetties from Madura, Ramnad,
Trichinopoli, Parambakudi, Tevakoddai, Paumben, Kumbha-konam, and other
towns of southern India. These are quite different from the scantily
clothed Naddukoddai Chetties so common in Ceylon. Many of them are
fashionably dressed in semi-European
1 " Colonial Sessional Papers," 1904, Colombo, p. 653.
