arvTßecreny,' sold. toUran anr.:: xgam,'tn«Moro;never.:gets ,the^ right:pr1eej for»the;.'"?nr'V?i7"'rJ ixjcarl, .because Mf he t^hasj

shown at » to-.trie (traaer^ ?19 ?*r e not:goaway^withbut|sellihg;.itito.him-for]fearthatithe trader mlghtbetrayihlm to;the

vAMt!C.Th» onlyV«atltfaction -the Morogets 3isithatlthel pearls 'are fbought 'fordouble iand^three jtlme3 ;b"y ',tho -'trader

Cvera usually do ih.o trade in partner-chip of two. seldom more, and even tfeither of them should not*get :

a' shellCuring an expedition the proceeds willalways be honestly, divided.

These divers have good fishingprounda near the villages, but they usedto

-make . expeditions to other • 'slanda"

be distay"away from txtelr homes for,"a

month or two.- Thes« Texpeditlons weremade sometimes twice, sometimes threetimes a year; it depended mostly on theweather. Nowadays these expeditionsarc eeldjoin, as there Is no security,' and-

tHe.-.peDpfe of raran«, aafljPatffli ara;afraid * to.. leave ;thelr $homes % for any ;length 'of

-tim*s not knowing2what

might :>happen" ::to*.'. their 3 unprotected ;families In\u25a0their absence, jAnother ;rea-son for thls Is that

'the^ ancient ;

of;giving!the!biggest !pearls which arofound:to;the \u25a0 Sultan ;;has «beeniabused,!very ?likelyfon both fsides^ 1The • people!having,learned |the r,yaluo 'of:'money,'and Ialso the price of pearls, , think itjunjust;that! the, Sultan' andfdattos jmakelthenvgivo*up the pearls »at? euchr low]prices.*-The rcßUlt.is that a'great' many; pearls

,what'•the Sultan or. datto j-woaM-pay'

him. . . \ :.In former times •the Sultan and the

• dattjs mado'.up the loss they sustainedby their subjects selling pearl3 secretlyby • fining the ,'divers who tt * was re-'- ported had sold datto pearls. The Sul-tan, for instance, was told that So-and-so had recently become rich, so surelyho must have sold a pearl, or how. didhe obtain all these fine things in sucha small space of time? At \u25a0 once someof the Sultan's messengers were sentout to fine that man 2000 pesos. Without

§trial the man would have to pay, un-less the messenger could be bargainedwith—which was usual

—for a' lower'

fine... In;case the man "and' all hisfriends swore that he had not sold apearl.Vthen ha~ was ,condemned to paythe court fees, which were -20,per centof the amount of the fine. This custom• was carried so far that a great :man.v.

\u25a0 oftthe' Patian divers left:and went f|other .places?.Bome"as far as Basilan, a.....Üblngv where :Serip""Amina' and. Scrip;'Ag.il }governed. The Slcubun -divers

i-werei -were under the; Jurisdiction- of Dattos'Kabbt • and' Jokanian. Parang ,and Pa-

*tian were under the" Sultan." The Sultan1 and dattos* have no longer the powar tocontrol* the pearling1 industry,- it having

been ;taken *away-from 'them by tha

American authority.

The second way o? fishing for motherof pearl;shelfs is with a five-pounddredge let down with- a rattan. Thisdredge is called badja, which signifies

plowing; the places where these dredg-ers are -used- are called badjaan. This

.dredge can only be used Where the bed

.is .free from rocks. The diver startsto drop the dredge at the upper endof the current, and the latter being

iverystrong, will\u25a0take the boat right

along,:pulling"the dredge behind alongtho bottom. .;When -the :dredgo catchesit;is. pulled,up, bringing sometimes ashell,"; sometimes ;a stone. Wnen the

'

boat reaches the lower,end of the fish--

ing ground It is paddled back againstthe ;current to the upper end. and so •It;goes, -back ;and ,forth, until the tideturns,. for.then the current is not strong \u25a0

enough;' to' pull the dredge.i.TherO:' ar.e generally two men lnTa>:'

boat,' seldom: three. The dredginggrounds are between seventeen and

.thirty,- five fathoms' in-depth, and mostof them cover a large water area.

.•\u25a0'. The thirds way of getting the 'shells

ils;by^using ja three-pronged catcher.

This-is let;down by a rattan rope. TheMoros^call this mag tung tung, whichimplies, ','to*let down." The fishermencan -only- work at this when the sea Isabsolutely calm, because the least ripple\u25a0willprevent-them from seeing the shellat % the

'bottom^ of•; the

'sea.: Another;point f is,t. the ,sea .'must" be ;very clear.If'storms prevail and the sea' is stirred

tup;/ the .water, remains -dirty and the ";.ifishermen "will-not <be 1able to see bot-'torn,vv Sometimes jthey,are 'able to see

.the .bottom .down- to 100 feet, other'times not[more than- forty to fifty feet:

". so\'tho «Moros». watch, and if the sea isclear Itlis 'immediately known all over,the\ different .- islands, and sometimes300: or '400; boats are at work-in oneplace. • « ..- '.Special laws have been made by the.'Philippine, Commission -governing the :"pearling ilndustry. The Sultan and hi3followers \ have no longer any legalright\to collect fines and penalties, butthe custom* has vobtained

'for'so long-

\u25a0.that *.the"ignorant ipeople stlH

"fear >the

"power,of the" Sultan

"TX~ MILLIONdollars, probably, and

/ \ thousands of lives are risked/ \ each year in the Sulu Sea

delving Into ocean depths forthe great, rough-shelled bivalve whichoccasionally contains a pearl worth akings ransom. Jolo is one of the fore-most pearling ports of the world. Th»Chinese here have large interests inthe industry, and there are Americans,Spaniards. Filipinos, Ceylonese. Sin-halese and Arabs engaged Inone phase

or another of tlie "business." All theMoros are interested In pearling anda considerable percentage of the popu-lation of the Sulu Archipelago gainsa livelihood by engaging in this peril-ous pursuit. The entire population ofJolo (the town) dabbles In pearls.Curbstone traders are numerous, andthey have to offer a tremendous varietyof sizes and shapes, kinds and colors.One who has the least instinct of atrader cannot resist the temptation tobuy, pitting his Judgment against ft.esebrokers. •

?- \

A greater gamble than the buyingol the pearls is undertaken by the pearlfishers. Because of the great risksinvolved and the possible fortune to begained at a stroke the occupation has& fascination scarcely resisted by thosewho have once experienced It. Becauseof the great variety of people whosearch for pearls, the vast area of thehunting grounds, the centuries old cus-toms of the Moros, no reliable statisticscan be obtained that will approximatethe profits.

Pearling is a game of hazard forhigh stakes. The pearler must riskcapital and human life, must brave theeea and go prepared to fight for hisrights with savage m<*n, and he mustpay the taxes and divide the profitswith the shrewd traders from Ceylonand {Singapore.

Sometimes fortune smiles. JosephTravis, a well-known journalist resid-ing in Manila, says that three yearsEgo a single pearl was marketed in theCelebes for 26,000 pesos. Itcame fromthe Sulu Sea. During the followingyear a pearl brought to Jolo was soldIn Singapore for 12,000 pesos, and lastyear one sold for 9730 pesos. Suchfinds rarely come to public notice.Fhrewd traders are always on hand tomatch them away from the ignorantand fearful di\'ers, and the jewel isfirst exposed for sale in Paris, Londonor a Dutch port. Probably the manwho places it on the market does notknow nor care for Jts history.

Thousands of pearls of lees value arofound every year, ranging in pricesfrom one-half to 1000 pesos. Some-times a rough looking pearl, by thnprocess of "skinning", is reduced to asmaller but more perfect gem and itsvalue enhanced a hundredfold.

Pearl shells arc themselves veryvaluable in the markets of the world.The mother of pearl taken from themcommands a high price. It is main-tained that the shell alone pays a goodprofit on a substantial investment, andthat the pearls taken from the catchare clear profit. At the present timetlip monthly shipments of shells fromJolo amount to about 150 piculs, valuedm 45 pesos per picul

"in Jolo. As it

floes not take more than thirty orthirty-five pairs of shells to make apicul, a good gathering of shells is ex-tremely profitable.

Nearly al! shells contain pearls ofmore or less value. Captain Tiana, theprominent Chinese merchant who hasbeen many years in the industry, saysthat in the. general run the value ofpearls taken will equal the value ofshells; that is, not counting any veryvaluable pearls, which are rare.

Dangerous and DifficultDivingThe Moras have three ways of get-

ting the shells out of the sea. Mr.Herman Schuck, who has lived all hislife among the Moros

—he was born on

Sulu Island— tells about it. One. is byactual diving. The diver goes downivithonly a handkerchief and a piece olrope around his waist; he never goesdown quite naked, this being againstthe custom of hJs people. Before adiver goes down he always says bisprayers and commends his soul to God.This divingis culled maksaap (to risk),

because in the operation the diver Isrisking his life and also risking thechance of getting a shelL In- formerdays, when shells were plentiful, th«diver would go down to a depth ofeight or ten fathoms, but graduallythey had to go deeper and deeper, and Nnowadays there are divers who willgo i

flown twenty fathoms. <

The best divers live in the villages iof Parang, called Nunukan and Langan i

Gituner. There the fathers teach theirsoss the art of diving from penerationto generation. The eecond best divers i

live on the island of Patlan ;the third i

best are the Samals of Eicubun. There iare no other divers in the archipelago, iIfa diver Is found in any other place ihis nativity is generally traced to one •

of ,the foregoing habitations. These i

Hamilton Wright

The Pearl Diversof Jolo

The San Francisco Sunday Call.Magazine Section Part I.