when he sees what 't is, I don't think he'll consider | countenance that would have been handsome but it his dooty!" They had reached the village during this conversation, and were approaching a group of persons engaged apparently in some dispute, when a young man burst out from the party, and, in a discomposed manner, was walking away. The skipper stopped him. "Well, Peter, my lad, what's wrong now?" "I think she's mad!" was Peter's doubtful answer, as he brushed back his hair impatiently from his hot, excited brow. He had handsome, but effeminate features, and seemed about twenty. The skipper spoke a word or two with him apart, patted his shoulder, as if enforcing some advice, and rejoined my uncle. "Young Magnus, my sister's son," he said. "A sweethearts' quarrel, sir, that 's all. But she do try him sure! Ah, Leasha, Leasha!" he continued, shaking his head at a young woman who sat at work upon the gunwale of a boat, and appeared the centre of an admiring circle of both sexes, who stood, sat, or sprawled about her, as their fancy prompted. She was very handsome, haughty-looking for her station, and, at this moment, out of humor. Though she could not hear the skipper's exclamation, she understood the gesture that accompanied it, and, smoothing her brow, appeared to stand on the defensive. Young Magnus, who had returned to the circle, stepped forward. "Now, Leasha," he said," will you dare to say before my uncle what you did to me,yes, to me?" repeated the young man, striking his breast passionately. "You The word was ill chosen. Leasha's spirit rose. "Dare!" she said, in a suppressed voice. shall see," she said. "But remember, Mr. Edmonston," addressing my uncle's companion, "this has nothing to do with such as you. I said that, among Scalloway men, we had both children and cowards. I said that, because a wrecked hull, or a raft of Norway timber, or, at worst a helpless, dying monster of some sort is floating on our shores, we are not ashamed to skulk and starve in port. Not a boat will put out to take up the fish within half a mile of this beach," she stamped her bare and sinewy but well-formed foot upon it," nor even venture near enough to discover what it is that has scared away your courage and reason. Shame on all such, I say, and shame again." "You don't know what you are talking of, Leasha," said Edmonston. "We do. If there were not danger, I should not be here. I might be willing to risk my life, but not my ship, which, while God spares her, must be my son's and grandson's bread. You speak at random, girl, and Peter Magnus is no more to blame than the rest of us; less, perhaps," said the good-natured skipper, "for his boat is but a kittle thing. Awreck, child? Who ever saw a rig with nine masts! Norway rafts?' Psha! Call it a sea-thing, you're nearer to the truth; but he's a bold seaman, and a precious fool to boot, that puts his craft near enough to ask whence he hails." "I would do it if I were a man," cried the girl, beating her foot upon the ground. "And—and I will not say what I should think of the bold man that did it now.' Young Magnus colored to the temples, for the challenge was directed to him, but made no reply. There had stood, meanwhile, a little aloof from the group, a young fisherman, tall, athletic, and with a for a depression of the nose, the result of an injury, and for a somewhat sullen and sinister expression, which was perhaps habitual to him. The words had not left Leasha's lips before he uncoiled his arms, which had been folded on his broad chest, and strode into the circle, saying, quietly, "I will go." "You'll not be such a fool, Gilbert Suncler (Sinclair)," said Edmonston. "You'll see," said the other, in his short, sullen manner. "Some of you boys shove her off," pointing to his boat, "while I run up yonder." He went to a cottage close at hand, and was back almost instantly, carrying something under his fishing-cape, and a gun. His boat was already in the water, and fifty dexterous hands busied in stepping the mast, setting the sails, and stowing the shingleballast. She was ready. "Who's going with you, since you will go?" growled Edmonston. "I've only room for one man living," said Sinclair, in his sinister way. "Now, I don't want to take advantage over Peter Magnus. Him, or none." The young man stood irresolute for a moment, then, with one glance at Leasha, leaped into the boat. Sinclair pushed off eagerly. "You have done well, girl," said Edmonston, sternly. "If either return alive, it will not be Peter Magnus." "What - what do you mean?" exclaimed the girl, clutching his sleeve as he turned away. "That Gilbert Sinclair is a treacherous, malignant devil, and at this moment mad with jealousStop But Leasha had dashed down the beach. "Peter! Peter!" she shrieked, "come back! For the love of Heaven - back! I must speak with you!" Too late!" replied Sinclair, with a grin. “Wait till he brings you what you want to know." As the last word was uttered there was a splash astern. Magnus had leaped into the water. "Ha! ha! Coward!" roared Sinclair, as his boat shot into the fog. Evening was now approaching, and my uncle, deeply interested, and resolved to see the adventure out, accepted the skipper's invitation to pass the night at his cottage. After taking some refreshment, they strolled out again upon the shore and quay. The mist was clearing, and the moon had risen. My uncle asked what his host imagined Sinclair proposed to do, expressing his doubts whether he intended anything but bravado. The Edmonston was not so sure of that. Ruffian as he was, with a spice of malice that made him the terror and aversion of the village, Sinclair was a perfect dare-devil in personal courage, and, his blood being now up, he was certain, if he returned at all, to bring back tidings of some description. man's unlucky passion for Leasha (who was betrothed, Edmonston said, to his nephew) had been the cause of much uneasiness to the friends of both. “God pardon me if I misjudge the man," concluded Edmonston; "but if ever murder looked out of man's eye, it did from his when Peter jumped into his boat to-day." By eleven o'clock the haze had lifted so much that the skipper proposed to ascend the height, and try if anything could be seen. The night was still as death; and, as they rose the hill, the soft rippling murmur of the sea barely reached their ears. "I never knew him so quiet as this!" remarked | I went to Takee's house. On arrival there we Edmonston; "I take it, he's Before he could finish, a sound, compounded of rush and roar, so fearful and appalling that it can be likened to nothing but the sudden bursting of a dam which confined a pent-up sea, swooped from seaward, and seemed to shake the very rock on which they stood. There was a bellow of cavernous thunder, which seemed to reverberate through the distant isles; and, far out, a broad white curtain appeared to rise, blend with the dispersing fog, and move majestically towards the land.' "It's the surf! He has sounded," whispered Edmonston. "Listen now!" Perfect silence had succeeded the tumultuous roar, and again they heard nothing but the sough of the sea lapping the crags below. But, after the lapse of perhaps a minute, the hush was invaded by a soft, sibilating murmur, increasing to a mighty roar; and, with a crash like thunder, a billow- fifteen feet in height fell headlong upon the rocky shore. It was followed by two or three more, each smaller than the preceding; and once again silence resumed her sway. At daybreak it was seen that the terrible Sentinel of Scalloway had returned to his fathomless deeps. And where was Sinclair? He was seen no more; but, weeks afterwards, a home-bound boat, passing near the spot where the monster had lain, nearly came in contact with some floating wreck. From certain singular appearances, some of which seemed to indicate that the wreck had been but recently released from the bottom, the crew were induced to take it in tow, and bring it into port. There it was at once identified as the forward portion of Gilbert Sinclair's boat, torn—or, as Scalloway men insist to this day, bitten—clean off, just forward of the mast, the grooves of one colossal tooth the size of a tree being distinctly visible! There are persons, it is true, who have endeavored to lessen the mysterious interest of my uncle's story, by suggesting a different explanation, -hinting, for example, that the object might have been composed of nothing more extraordinary than the entangled hulls of two large vessels, wrecked in collision; and that Sinclair, suspecting this, and endeavoring to reduce them to manageable proportions through the agency of gunpowder, had destroyed himself with them. But, if so, where were the portions of wreck? We have also the support of no less a person than the author of "Waverley," who, in his notes to the "Pirate," mentions the incident, and its effect upon the hardy seamen of Scalloway; while my uncle himself, at a subsequent visit to that port, smoked a pipe with Mr. Magnus in the very boat - - then converted into an arbor- that had been bitten in two by the sea-monster. So that, with him, I frankly ask, if it was not a kraken, -What was it? A CHINESE LYING-IN-STATE. AN excellent opportunity, says a correspondent to the London and China Telegraph, has been afforded foreigners for witnessing the peculiar forms and ceremony of a Chinese lying-in-state and grand funeral obsequies, by the death of the wealthy mandarin baker, Takee, with whose name many of your readers may probably be familiar. On the evening of the second day of what might be termed the lying-in-state, accompanied by a couple of friends, found a large number of Celestials crowding and staring round the entrance, which was illuminated by lanterns, and over which a curious lofty structure had been reared, composed of small panes of window-glass set in a framing of white cotton cloth, puckered and arranged by bows, rosettes, &c., into a regular pattern and panels. A number of candles and lamps were placed behind the panels of windowglass on which figures of flowers and leaves had been roughly painted, the whole forming a light and rather elegant screen for the native orchestra, but who, no doubt, tired with their day's exertions, did not mar the pleasure of our sight-seeing by making the night hideous with their music. Pushing our way through the good-tempered but odorous crowd, we came face to face with a municipal council policeman, stationed at the wide-opened doors, whose business was to allow all foreigners to enter, but only such natives as bore tickets of admission, or were friends of the deceased. Passing this amiable, though stern-looking, Cerberus and along a short passage or hall, in which we noticed a scarlet umbrella and several red wooden tablets, marks of the deceased man's rank, we entered a suite of rooms brilliantly lighted by hanging glass lanterns and some overgrown candles. The rooms were divided from each other by screens or walls of open latticework, cleverly and very neatly contrived by curious twillings and puckerings of white cotton cloth; the knowing ones said, "white shirtings." On two of these screens, forming a central room, we noticed two eight-sided medallions with grotesque representations of a deer and a crane, which must have required no small amount of ingenuity to compose, considering the nature and extraordinarily puckered form of the material employed. From the ceiling of this room was hanging a large mysterious-looking ornament fashioned from the same stuff, adorned with tassels and streamers, whose use or object it was impossible to divine. On the walls of the rooms, and on the screens separating the rooms from each other, or what seemed to me dividing a very large room indeed into several smaller ones,-hung strips of variously colored satin, inscribed with quotations from the Chinese classics, in gilt and silvered lettering,-votive tablets from the deceased's friends. These tablets were about twelve or eighteen inches in breadth and some six or eight feet high or long. Their more general hue was a rich dark blue or white; the former with gilt letters, the latter with silvered or gilt; but there were some of very delicate tints of other colors,pink, lavender, lemon, &c. From the top of each on either side hung a long thin silken tassel, probably for securing the tablet when rolled up into a scroll. The effect was really very elegant. These rooms were furnished with mirrors, tables, and chairs, many of the latter being covered with richly-embroidered pieces of blue silk or satin. Several cheval-glasses presented an odd dressing-roomish appearance, and with some French gilt clocks, which did not go, looked quaintly out of place with their surroundings. When we arrived, these rooms were filled with numbers of Chinese, either seated round the tables, closely engaged with piled-up dishes of their mysterious eatables, resolutely determined on the enjoy ment of no ordinary chow-chow, or by others gently walking about, smoking an occasional whiff, or in the arms of a comfortable chair taking their ease with the beaming cordial smile and loving look of well-filled, appreciative stomachs. The rattling of cups and dishes, the hurrying to Passing through the portal of the "Gate of the and fro of food-laden attendants and pipe-bearers, Soul," we added to the large number of strangers the fumes of the viands, the smoke of tobacco, the who were collected in the inner chamber or chapel, bustle, merriment, and chatter, the brilliantly light-witnessing the Taouist ceremonial that was proceeded and decorated rooms, the cheerful glow and jovial gayety of all, betokened a state of festivity rather than the presence of death. At the end of the central room, however, and in view of all, was a white lattice-screened portal, on the white doors of which was written, in large blue characters, "Ling Mung," -"Gate of the Soul." ing. There were nearly a dozen white-vestured and capped priests officiating. One read slowly aloud a sentence, at each word of which six or seven others, who were kneeling, bowed their foreheads to the ground. Then the chief priest, standing before the shrine or altar, and facing the portrait of Takee, receiving from a kneeling bonze on his right Admitted through this portal, we found ourselves hand a small cup or bowl of food, sweetmeat, or in a sort of chapel. Along the walls hung votive confectionery, and after repeating the word of the tablets on blue and white satin strips as in the rooms first priest, elevated and lowered the dish of food; we had just left, and along the sides were ranged he then handed it to a kneeling bonze on his left, chairs, in which the female servants of the deceased by whom it was also elevated and lowered, and dewere sitting as mourners. At the head of this cham-livered to a third to be carried away. The number ber there was a kind of altar, with sacred vessels and of dishes seemed interminable, and the same proGargantuan candles burning, behind which stood a ceeding appeared to me to be pursued with them raised board covered with a number of dishes, heaped throughout. At length the last dish was disposed up with all kinds of sweetmeats, fruit, and strange of for that "go." The chief priest then read a confectionery. Hanging lamps shed a brilliant light paper, which I was given to understand was laudhere also. Lifting a narrow white curtain on either atory of the deceased's virtues, and having placed side of this chow-chow laden board, we saw a sec-it on a brazier of burning charcoal, and thrown a ond table on a level with it crowded with more dish- handful of silver-paper imitation sycee on it, one of es or bowls of meat, fish, fowl, and vegetables, above Takee's wives or widows, of whom, I hear, he has which rested, somewhat after the fashion of an altar-left a goodly number, rushed in, holding the adopted piece, a portrait of Takee, and at his feet, placed on a miniature chair, rested the Sacred Book of his belief, the "Tau-tih-King," or "Bible of the Taouists." son, a child, by the hand. The paper and imitation sycee flamed up and were destroyed, to the howling, banging, musical uproar which introduces the gnome fiends and monstrous devils of a Christmas pantomime; the wife, or widow, and son rushed off as hastily as they had rushed on, and the service for a time ended. Refreshments in the form of tea and substantial "board and lodging" soup was brought in to the smiling, merry-looking priests, who seemed to have arrived at the end of a service that had restrained them to a serious comportment, with immense relief, and to hail the advent of the "prog" with unbounded satisfaction and many a lively joke. Takee having been at the head of the Ningpo Guild in Shanghai, and a Ningpo man, was taken to that port for burial, after lying in state five days. The steamer Kiangse's cabin was entirely appropri ated for conveying his body at a cost of a thousand taels (more than £ 300), and a funeral cortége of extraordinary magnificence and extent left his house on the morning of the 16th inst. to carry the coffin down to the steamer, on which it was placed amidst the firing of many big guns. Owing to a misconception as to the time of the departure of the procession, I was, unfortunately, prevented attending it, and take the following description from the columns of the Shanghai Recorder. On one side below the picture, and with his back to it, a figure of a Chinaman, about three feet high, standing on a tea-chest, offered a pipe with one hand and invited with the other to the good things laid out on the table before him; on the other side stood a second inviting figure handing a cup of tea. From rude unpainted wooden racks on each wall funereal garments of some coarse fabric, ill-made and rough, were suspended, -fitting vestments for mourners in "sackcloth and ashes." The coffin of Takee was deposited immediately behind this portrait, in a small, dim, bare chamber. It was richly lacquered, about seven feet in length, two wide, and about three feet high, covered with a close-fitting crimson-wadded quilt or pall, and was placed on a slightly-raised bier; a coarse mourning robe and cap were carelessly thrown it, for the use of his adopted son at the funeral ceremony. In answer to a stranger's inquiry as to what it was- namely, the strangelooking cap-I heard an intensely practical, I will not say irreverent, foreigner reply," Spanish stripes," by which I infer he alluded to the material of the quilted pall. No priests were officiating on the first night of our visit, though we saw several in their white robes and skullcaps moving about. Return- As an out-door spectacle, it is reported to have ing two evenings after, we were greeted by three been superior in splendor to any in the recollection loud explosions outside the entrance door, which we of the oldest resident. Its commencement is stated discovered were produced by a servant firing some to have been paltry. A paper figure, like an gunpowder, as the signal of the commencement of elaborate scarecrow of a Guy Fawkes, called the a kind of mass or prayer, and during our stay this" Kan-loo," or Road Spirit, also the "Devil Steer," firing was repeated as often as the priests resumed preceded the procession as herald of the dead. prayers, after a break in them. Next came a trophy of great value, -the "Tsing," or plumed standard, granted Takee by the Emper or; then a crowd, scattering imitation sycee with lavish hand to divert the malignity of evil spirits by exciting and then disappointing their cupidity. The municipal police band followed; then a long line of ancestral tablets and the Yaoutai's retinue; next, borne by four men, the "Tsi-ty-yung," or Imperial Scales, another token of the favor of the court of Peking. Then came the "splendid" por We entered with as little difficulty as on the previous visit. The rooms were as full and as brilliantly lighted as before, but there was no chowchowing, and, as a consequence, I suppose, the Chinamen looked rather bored and tired with the thing than otherwise, though they seemed pleased with the visits of foreigners, and flattered with the curiosity displayed by them, taking every opportunity to enlighten the "barbarians" ignorance. Every Saturday, WHAT I SAW OF THE PEARL-FISHERY. tion of the spectacle. Taouist priests by two, gorgeously robed in amber satin vestments, stiff with brocade and gold embroidery; to glean some idea of whose "shape and sheen," says the Recorder, you must examine the pall of Ambroise of Milan, in Vandyke's well-known picture. Amongst these people, all very busy in accomplishing but little, I was trying to live on nothing per diem. During the day I would wander about the city, and occasionally give its inhabitants a lesson in economy by consuming a pine-apple, shaddock, or mango that had been rejected by others. In the evening I would walk out of town, where, undisturbed by its inhabitants, I could find a night's A man who lives in Ceylon must be inlodging in some cinnamon-garden or grove of cashew After this glittering group a scarcely less gorgeous band of Bhuddist priests came, clad in scarlet, then a troop of by no means clean children, -rather dirty little beggars, in fact. After whom, in the deceased's nut-trees. chair, veiled in red crape, the Shintsu-Ba, a myste-dustrious, and I recommend the place as a residence rious tablet considered the seat of the human soul, for any one who is constitutionally indolent, and now in happiness, and closely veiled lest it be per- wishes relief from the infirmity. Day and night exturbed by beholding the sorrow of those he loved. istence demands a constant warfare against myriads More Bhuddist priests of second rank followed in of sand-flies and other annoyances, small in form, profusely embroidered green robes; then a closely but great in the effect of disturbing repose. clustered mass of tall narrow silk and satin banners inscribed with sentences recommending the soul of the departed to the genii, and recording his good acts in this life to insure him a kind reception in the Then another instance of Chinese contradiction, the "Djur Lan," or mourning lantern, hung before the dead man's face to enable him to recognize his friends in the next world. next. The friends of the deceased then followed with his adopted son, and in the coarse grass-cloth garments I have before mentioned; the coffin from Lintin, now covered with green instead of crimson, and surmounted by a paper representation of the "SeenHok," or Fairy Stork. This long cortége was closed by thirty-nine chairs containing the wives in mourning garments, and their friends crowned with chaplets of white china-asters. With such pomp and Takee circumstance (writes the Recorder) was borne to the Joss-house near the Maloo, then through the streets to the river-side, where, amidst salvos of cannon, his body was placed on board the steamer Kiangse, which was to convey it to the last restingplace at Ningpo. Takee's wealth is reputed to be one million taels (about a third of a million sterling), and we were told by a mandarin, at the lying-in-state, that the cost of it, the chow-chowing, priests, pageant, and other outlay, till the coffin was deposited in the grave at Ningpo, would amount to 50,000 taels (fifty thousand taels), which statement we took cum grano salis, but we were more inclined to believe this buttoned grandee when he said that four hundred candles were nightly consumed in lighting the house. WHAT I SAW OF THE PEARL-FISHERY. I. CEYLON. EARLY in the month of February, 1859, I found myself in the streets of Colombo, in the Island of Ceylon. How I came there need not concern the reader at present, though I may say that ill usage drove me to leave my ship without receiving the money due to me for wages. The fear of being again put under the command of those I disliked prevented me from visiting that part of the town where the principal European residents of the place were dwelling, and I was compelled to acquire some knowledge of the inhabitants of that part of the city occupied by the descendants of the Dutch and Portuguese, and of the Pettah, or native quarter of Colombo. The Pettah presented a fine school for acquiring some knowledge of the different races found in the East; for it then contained a population of about thirty-five thousand souls, including Malays, Moors, Lentoos, Parsees, and native Cingalese. A soft bed of snow and a blanket of ice were all I then desired for perfect happiness; but such luxuries are not to be had in Ceylon. If I did wrong in leaving my ship, I was amply punished for it. In the frenzy of struggling to maintain an existence press upon me some record of their love and hatred, against the myriads of tormentors all anxious to imI arranged my frantic powers of thought into a resoA small brig was about to lution to take the first opportunity of getting once more upon the water. sail for the Bay of Condatchy, and I joined it as one of the crew, with the promise that I should be employed in the pearl-fishery when the vessel reached its destination. It was the first chance I had of leaving Colombo; a better might have been found the same day; but I had acquired all the experience of a vagabond life in that city that I deemed necessary for future use, and would run no risk in enlarging it. The brig belonged to a Colombo merchant, who oyster-bed that had lately been surveyed and sold had purchased at auction the right of fishing on an by the government. The vessel was freighted with stores for the use of those who had been engaged for the fishery, and was commanded by a native of Colombo, of Portuguese descent, named Manos. Aboard the brig were several men who had been engaged as divers. They were called Marawas, and were most of them natives of Tuticorum. They had no duty to perform on the vessel, and seldom spoke but to each other. A high opinion of their associating too freely with those who have never profession or business evidently made them above had conceived this exalted opinion of themselves I tried to make themselves amphibious; but why they was unable to learn. - Four days after leaving Colombo we anchored in the Bay of Condatchy, and I again found myself on numerous, inquisitive, impertinent, and the animated soil of Ceylon, where the insects were quite as We landed near a village containing about twelve most of them miserable-lookbloodthirsty as those of the place we had left. hundred inhabitants, ing wretches, and many of them apparently suffering Every species of animal and vegetable life seemed evils from which death would seem a relief. in its proper home excepting man, who was apparently maintaining a miserable, uncertain existence, remove him from the island. in opposition to the efforts nature was making to II. PEARL-FISHING. WE found Condatchy Bay the scene of much boats, principally from the Coromandel and Malabar animation; for more than one hundred and fifty coasts, had reached the bay, and their crews were making preparations for engaging in pearl-fishing, which was not to commence until the 16th of the month, three days after our arrival. An oyster-bank is divided into five parts, only one of which is fished in a year, and each in turns. This prevents the bank from being completely stripped, and gives the young oysters a chance of reaching maturity. The right of fishing on certain portions of the bank is sold at auction to the highest bidder, and purchased by speculative merchants, who generally lose money in the business. This, however, does not prevent them from engaging in it, since there is a chance of a large fortune being made at it in one season. Each fishing-boat is manned by twenty men, besides a tindal, or man acting as pilot, who has authority over all the others. Ten of the twenty men are divers; the others attend on them, pull the boat, and perform all other duties. The oyster-banks off Condatchy are about twenty miles from the shore; and early on the evening of the 15th more than a hundred boats were manned by men anxiously waiting for the signal for them to start for their respective fishing-grounds. At ten o'clock in the evening a gun was fired at Arippo. It was a signal that the boats might start; and setting a sail to catch the land-breeze, then fairly on its way for the sea, we started. I had consented to form one of the ten of a boat's crew, whose duty consisted in managing the boat and looking after the divers; and, on our first excursion out, Senhor Manos, who had commanded the brig, was our tindal, or pilot. We reached our station a little before sunrise, and preparations were immediately commenced for business. The divers divested themselves of all clothing except a small piece of calico about the loins; and to a belt around the waist each fastened a small net to hold the oysters. Each had a piece of iron weighing about ten pounds, to which was tied a small line with a loop in which a foot could be inserted. These weights were to enable them to descend with greater rapidity to the bottom; for, as they could only remain under water from one minute and a half to two minutes, it was necessary that no time should be lost on the way down. All came up within a few seconds of each other, and each had not less than one hundred oysters in the net. The diver attached to the line I was holding was the first to make an appearance, and required much more force in pulling him up than what I thought was necessary; but as he reached the surface, the reason of this was immediately seen. He was bearing in his hands a mass of oysters adhering together, which he had succeeded in detaching from a rock with his knife. The mass could not have weighed less than forty pounds. The other five divers immediately went down; and in this way the work was carried on until noon, the divers having gone down about forty times each since the time they commenced in the morning. The sea-breeze had then commenced blowing, and we started for the shore. Thus far we had been fortunate; and yet there was a possibility that in the many bushels of oysters we had secured there might not be a pearl of the value of one shilling. But with this possibility there was another: the cargo we had procured might be worth five or ten thousand pounds. On reaching the shore the oysters were taken from the boat, put into a pit, and then covered over with matting and some earth, there to die and decompose. The shells would then be open, when they would be picked over, and the pearls, if they contained any, would be extracted. More than two thousand men had been at work on the banks that day, and many tons of oysters had been taken from their homes to die. "What," thought I, "can be the real cause of this labor, this waste of time for a substance that is of no practical use to mankind?" To many of those I had seen employed that day an answer to this question would have been very simple. They would have told me that they were working for money; but I looked beyond this for the real cause of their toil. The conclusion at which I arrived may be wrong, perhaps worse,―ungallant; for all this wicked waste of time I ascribed to the fact that ladies have vanity. From the result of this infirmity thousands of others have to suffer. It seems that the law of nature, that from the misfortunes of a few many must suffer, applies to pearl-oysters as well as human be One end of the small line attached to the weightings; for since being in the fishery I have learned was retained in the boat, to enable us to recover the weight after the diver had reached the bottom and withdrawn his foot from the loop. Although there were ten divers in each boat, only five went over at a time. This enabled each to have a rest, and still kept the work constantly going on. Each man before going over had placed around his body, under the arms, a line by which he could be pulled to the surface, the end of the line being held by one of the crew in the boat; and as an additional precaution against danger, a line was hanging from the stem of the boat, and sunk with a weight to the bottom. With a knife in one hand, and firmly grasping the nose with the other, five of our divers went over the side, and rapidly disappeared below, while those in the boats saw that the lines attached to their bodies ran out clear, and stood ready to pull them up, should the signal be given for us to do so. This was the first work of the kind I had ever seen performed, and the minute and a half or more in which we waited for the shaking of the lines, which was the signal for us to haul up, seemed to me a period of nearly ten minutes. that only oysters in ill-health produce pearls; yet the misfortunes of the afflicted bring all from their beds in the sea to the earth-pits to die. III. THE PILLAR KARRAS. In the evening after we had unloaded the boat, many reports reached us of the events of the day. All were favorable for the prospect of a good season at the fishery; for we heard no complaints as to want of success in procuring oysters. Other reports, however, gave the fear that the business of procur ing was to be followed with danger; for we heard of three or four encounters with sharks, in one of which a diver had been killed. For each boat employed on the pearl-banks there is a priest, whose business is to protect the divers from sharks. During the time the boats are out, these men are supposed to be engaged in prayers and other ceremonies thought necessary for the protection of those who have employed them. The pearl-divers will not work unless there is some one, either in the boat or on shore, who is paid by their employers for protecting them from sharks. The priests or conjurers are called Pillar Karras, or |