Pearl Lottery
Prehistoric man had only to develop a liking for shellfish in order to acquire a nugget of scientific knowledge that oysters which somehow go wrong produce a pretty object, the pearl. Pearls were responsible for a spectacular tumult on the shores of the gulf of Mannoind of lottery which amounted to bets on how many -and which -among tens of millions of oysters had gone wrong. Speculators bought mountains of the things, laid them out in the sun to rot, and then gently prised the shells open to see what they had won. In a good season, between 1 and 2 percent revealed something, if only a meagre consolation prize. In 1797, however, a poor labourer who had scraped together enough to buy just three shells squatted over them while they rotted, opened them up, and hit the jackpot with the most valuable pearl anyone could remember. 

The oysters, like any gems found below ground, belonged to the king (farmers owned the surface but that's all). Tissa, for example, who ruled at the time of the conversion to Buddhism, styled him- self "Lord of the Pearl Fields". Tbe oysters returned annually to their feeding grounds on banks about 30 km (20 miles) out to sea, their numbers var- ied, and only a proportion of them were of the right age, between five and seven years old; "if left too long, the pearl gets so large and so disagreeable to the fish that it vomits and throws it out of the shell". An official inspector went out by boat to see if the oysters were ready for fishing. Timing was critical and hostage to the possibility that the oysters might be swept away by exceptional cur- rents. The big day was announced four or five months in advance, so there were always smug- glers planning to jump the gun. 

In normal times, the village of Marichchukadi was a motley clump of huts, but with the approach of the big day hundreds of overloaded boats arrived from India to join a roaring bedlam attended by an army of snake-charmers, conjurors, astrologers, betel-sellers, prostitutes and "dancing boys". Lots were drawn to decide which of the boats would form the official fishing fleet. The winners were at once importuned by "shark-binders" who, for a daiiy rate, offered to protect divers from shark attack with a combination of incantations, magic potions, contortionism and dancing about on the beach. Options to buy hauls from various boats changed hands in what would now be recognised, on the stock market, as trading in futures. Bizet was sufficiently impressed by the drama to write the opera Les pecheurs de Perles, which opened in Paris in 1863. 

The banks were at depths between 6 and 20 metres (19-65 ft). Divers jumped in with two ropes: one tied to a heavy stone and themselves to acceerate descent, the other to a basket or string bag. i Although the record was reputed to be six minutes, Ithey generally stayed down for between 40 seconds i and a minute, wrenching the shells off the seabed and filling the bag. They gave a tug when their lungs I gave out, and both ropes were yanked to the surface. Bleeding from the ears and nose, divers repeated the exercise up to 50 times per day. The boats then raced back to the shore to auction their , haul, keeping a commission of about 20 percent.