In the tenth century A.D., Mingti, one of the most extravagant of the early monarchs, used so many pearls—not only in his personal decoration but on his equipage and retinue,—that after a formal procession the way would be rich in the jewels which dropped from the gorgeous cortège. About 1000 A.D., an embassy to the emperor brought as tribute an ornament composed of strings of pearls, and also 105 liang (8¾ lbs.) of the same gems unmounted. An interesting story is told of “pearl-scattering” by an embassy to the Chinese court from a Malayan state about 1060. Following the customs of their country, the ambassadors knelt at the threshold of the audience chamber, and then advanced toward the throne, bearing a golden goblet filled with choice pearls and water-lilies wrought of gold. These they scattered upon the floor at the feet of the emperor; and the courtiers, hastening to pick them up, secured ten hang (15 oz.) of pearls.[171] The Keh Chi King Yuen, a Chinese encyclopedia, describes a pearl fishery in the southern part of Kwang-tung province, in the department of Lien-chau and near the city of Hóhpú. Fishing began in the spring, and was preceded by conciliating the gods through certain sacrifices, in order that the weather might be propitious and that no disaster might be suffered through sharks and other agencies. The five sacrificial animals,—horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and fowls,—were presented; but ordinarily paper images of these were economically substituted, as equally acceptable to the Chinese rulers of destiny. In the details of the diving, the fishery resembled somewhat that prosecuted about the same period in the Gulf of Manaar. The diver was let down by a rope, and after collecting the mollusks and placing them in a basket, he was drawn up at a given signal. Much complaint was made that the divers would open the mollusks, extract the pearls and conceal them in the mouth before returning to the surface. The business became so perilous and the loss so great, that about the beginning of the sixteenth century, according to the same encyclopedia, dredges were adopted. These at first were simple rakes; later large dredges were trailed along between two boats, by means of which great quantities of shells were gathered. So important was the industry that an officer was designated by the viceroy of Canton to collect a revenue therefrom. It does not appear that pearls have been collected in considerable numbers on this part of the Chinese coast for very many years, probably not since the advent of Europeans.