e and intelligent description is
contained in the _Account of the Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon_, by JAMES
STEUART, Esq., Inspector of the Pearl Banks, 4to. Colombo, 1843.]

[Footnote 2: MASSOUDI says that the Persian divers, as they could not
breathe through their nostrils, _cleft the root of the ear_ for that
purpose: "_Ils se fendaient la racine de l'oreille pour respirer_; en
effet, ils ne peuvent se servir pour cet objet des narines, vu qu'ils se
les bouchent avec des morceaux d'ecailles de tortue marine on bien avec
des morceaux de corne ayant la forme d'un fer de lance. En meme temps
ils se mettent dans l'oreille du coton trempe dans de
l'huile."--_Moroudj-al-Dzeheb,_ &c., REINAUD, _Memoire sur l'Inde,_ p.
228.]

[Footnote 3: Colonel WILSON says they compress the nose with horn, and
close the ears with beeswax. See _Memorandum on the Pearl Fisheries in
Persian Gulf.--Journ. Geogr. Soc._ 1833, vol. iii. p. 283.]

Improbable tales have been told of the capacity which these men acquire
of remaining for prolonged periods under water. The divers who attended
on this occasion were amongst the most expert on the coast, yet not one
of them was able to complete a full minute below. Captain Steuart, who
filled for many years the office of Inspector of the Pearl Banks,
assured me that he had never known a diver to continue at the bottom
longer than eighty-seven seconds, nor to attain a greater depth than
thirteen fathoms; and on ordinary occasions they seldom exceeded
fifty-five seconds in nine fathom water[1].

[Footnote 1: RIBEYRO says that a diver could remain below whilst two
_credos_ were being repeated: "Il s'y tient l'espace de deux
_credo_."--Lib. i. ch. xxii. p. 169. PERCIVAL says the usual time for
them to be under water was two minutes, but that some divers stayed
_four_ or _five_, and one _six_ minutes,--_Ceylon_ p. 91; LE BECK says
that in 1797 he saw a Caffre boy from Karical remain down for the space
of seven minutes.--_Asiat. Res_ vol. v. p. 402.]

The only precaution to which the Ceylon diver devotedly resorts, is the
mystic ceremony of the shark-charmer, whose exorcism is an indispensable
preliminary to every fishery. His power is believed to be hereditary;
nor is it supposed that the value of his incantations is at all
dependent upon the religious faith professed by the operator, for the
present head of the family happens to be a Roman Catholic. At the time
of our visit this mysterious functionary was il