smooth on the inside so that pearls may not lodge in the crevices. This tank is covered with matting, and the toddi is
closed up, sealed, and guarded for a week or ten days, when the fly
maggots will have consumed practically all of the flesh tissues,
leaving little else than the shells and pearls. The tank is then filled
with sea water to float out the myriads of maggots. Several nude
coolies squat along the sides to wash and remove the shells. The valves
of each shell are separated, the outsides rubbed together to remove all
lodgments for pearls, and the interior examined for attached or
encysted pearls. The washers are kept under constant supervision by
inspectors to prevent concealment of pearls ; they are not permitted
to remove their hands from the water except to take out the shells, and
under no circumstances are they allowed to carry the hands to the mouth
or to any other place in which pearls could be concealed.
After
the shells have been removed, fresh supplies of water are added to wash
the debris, which is turned over and over repeatedly, the dirty water
being bailed out through sieves to prevent the loss of pearls. After
thorough washings, every particle of the sarraku, or material at the bottom of the ballam, consisting of sand, broken pieces of shell, pearls, etc., is gathered up in a cotton cloth. Later the sarraku is
spread out on cloths in the sun to dry, and the most conspicuous pearls
are removed. When dry, the material is critically examined over and
over again, and winnowed and rewinnowed, and after it seems that
everything of value has been secured, the refuse is turned over to
women and children, whose keen eyes and deft fingers pick out many masi-tul or
dust-pearls ; and even after the skill of these has been exhausted, the
apparently worthless refuse has a market value among persons whose
patience and skill meets with some reward. It is due largely to the
extreme care in the search that so many seed-pearls are found in Ceylon.
And
this leads to a discussion of what is commonly known in Ceylon as the
"Dixon washing machine." This is an invention of Mr. G. G. Dixon who
constructed it at Marichchikadde in 1904 and 1905, at a total cost to
the government of about Rs. 162,00ο,1 including all expenses
incidental to the experiment. The machine involves two separate
processes ; the first consists in separating the shells from the soft
portion of the oysters, and the second in recovering the pearls from
the resultant sarraku after it has been dried. In 1905, about 5,000,000 oysters were put through this machine,3 but with what result has not been announced.
The shells having pearls attached to the interior surface are turned
1 "Colonial Sessional Papers," 1906, Col- * "Reports on the Pearl Fisheries for 1905,"
ombo, p. 330.
Colombo, p. 25.
