a
few days' respite in bamboo cages in water, before being tortured for
the gratification of human vanity, when they are taken out to receive
the matrices. These are various in form and material, the most common
being pellets made of mud, taken from the bottom of water-courses,
dried, powdered with the juice of camphor-tree seeds, and formed into
pills which, when dry, are fit for introduction into the unfortunate
subject. Moulds which best exhibit the nacreous deposit are brought
from Canton, and appear to be made from the shell of the Pearl-oyster.
The irregular fragments thus procured are triturated with sand in an
iron mortar, until they become smooth and globular. Another class of
moulds consists of small images, generally of Buddha, in the usual
sitting posture, or sometimes of a fish ; they are made of lead, cast
very thin, by pouring on a board having the impression. Pearls having
these forms have excited much surprise, since they first attracted the
attention of foreigners a few years back.
The
introduction of the Pearl nuclei is an operation of considerable
delicacy. The shell is generally opened with a spatula of
Mother-of-Pearl, and the free portion of the mollusc is carefully
separated from one surface of the shell with an iron probe ; the
foreign bodies are then successively introduced at the point of a
bifurcated bamboo stick,
