Page 131 - English Expedition Class 6

When at anchor, they cast a rope into the sea, having a great stone at one end. Th en a man having
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his ears well stopped , and his body anointed with oil, and a basket hanging to his neck or under
his left arm, goes down to the bottom of the sea along the rope, and fi lls his basket with oysters as fast
as he can. When that is full, he shakes the rope, and his companions draw him up with the basket.
Th e divers follow each other in succession in this manner till the boat is loaded with oysters, and they
return at evening to the fi shing village. Th en each boat or company makes their heaps of oysters at
some distance from each other, so that a long row of great heaps of oysters are seen piled along the
shore. Th ese are not touched till the fi shing is over, when each company sits down beside its own heap,
and falls to opening the oysters, which is now easy, as the fi sh within are all dead and dry. If every
oyster had pearls it would be a profi table occupation but there are many which have none.
Th ere are certain persons called Chittnis who are learned in pearls, and are employed to sort and
value them according to weight, beauty and goodness, dividing them into four sorts.
Th e fi rst sort which are round are bought by the Portuguese.
Th e second sort which are not round are bought by the province of Bengal.
Th e third which are inferior to the second, are sold into the kingdom of Bijnagar or Narasinga
[Vijayanagar].
Th e fourth or the lowest kind, is being sold into the country.
Th us sorted, and prices fi xed to each, there are merchants from all countries ready with their
money, so that in a few days all the pearls are bought up according to their goodness and weight.

Marco Polo (1254–1324) was only sixteen or seventeen when he
departed Venice with his father and uncle and headed for China via the
famed Silk Road. The great Mongol emperor Kublai Khan received the
Polos well, and for the next seventeen years they lived in diff erent parts
of his vast empire. Their return to Venice in 1295 was dramatic, shocking
neighbours and relatives who had long thought them dead. At this time,
Venice was at war with the Republic of Genoa. Soon after, Polo was taken prisoner in a battle, and
in prison he met a well-known writer called Rustichello. Polo dictated the remarkable tales of his
travels to this writer, who compiled them into The Travels of Marco Polo.
An instant success, many people thought the account was fi ctional, but Polo, even on his
deathbed, maintained that he hadn’t narrated ‘even half of what he saw’. The book remains one of
the most important European travelogues, and Polo’s descriptions of the East and its riches greatly
infl uenced European explorers like Columbus.

12 well stopped: blocked (with something) to keep out 13 anointed: smeared
water
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