Mother of pearl is employed by the Indians to make panes for their windows. They are prepared at Cape Comari, where there is a pearl fishery. The pearls themselves are not sold there by weight as in Europe, but merely by an estimation of their value. Twenty pearl-oysters may be bought for a rupee, and the purchaser is not allowed to open them till he has paid the money. If only one pearl is found in these twenty oysters, he has sufficient reason to be satisfied with his bargain; but if they contain none, he must put up with the loss. VOYAGE TO THE EAST INDIES. BOOK II. CHAPTER I. _Birth and Education of Children._ The Indians of Malabar say that women conceive in silence, but bring forth amidst noise. When a woman is pregnant, the greatest respect is paid to her; not only by her husband, but by her parents, her relations, and her neighbours; and all the inhabitants of the place belonging to her cast interest themselves for her health and safety. They consider pregnancy as a very distinguished proof of the blessing of the goddess _Lakshmi_[156], who is a symbol of the fertility of the earth; and in the same degree that they detest widowhood and barrenness, they treat with care and tenderness married and pregnant women. The attention shown to the latter is founded in principles of wise legislation and sound philosophy, which employ these means to increase population and promote parental affection. When a woman has attained to the seventh month of her pregnancy, a particular festival is celebrated on her account. A bower, consisting of the branches, leaves, and bloom of the coco-nut tree, is constructed in the court-yard of her habitation; and her husband sends betel leaves to all her friends and relations, and invites them to the solemnity. As soon as the company have assembled in the arbour, boiled rice is brought as an offering to the gods on a banana leaf. This offering is called _Ponghel_, that is, the rice offering. The rice is accompanied with some figs, a little sugar, and butter; so that the whole has the appearance of a libation. It may be readily perceived, that the object of this ceremony is to induce the gods to provide for the support of the child, and to protect the mother, during the last months of her pregnancy, from every thing that might prove hurtful or prejudicial to her. After the libation, a coco-nut is broken and presented as an offering to _Gannesha_. A garland of flowers is then hung round the neck of the pregnant woman, who sits in the middle of the arbour; and a dish filled with saffron and chalk, which have been previously dissolved in water, is placed before her. The saffron, or _cuncuma_, is consecrated to the planets, which are worshipped by the Indians as deities, and which are said to possess the power of