Oddu—or Ottumuttu, “shell-pearl”: an attached pearl or nacreous excrescence on the outside of the shell.
Of the twelve classes named above, the first four are known as the chevvǔ, or superior classes; the next three as the vadivu, or beautiful classes; and the last five as the kalan̄chǔ, or inferior classes. The chevvǔ pearls are found only in the first four sieves or baskets; and for this reason these are known as the chevvǔ peddi or “chevvǔ baskets,” although they may also retain inferior pearls. A name used to indicate the class of pearls found in the first four sieves is mel or melmuttu, “upper” or “superior pearl,” while vadivu designates those retained by the next three and túl those of the last three.
After the pearls have been graded according to size and classified according to quality, they are weighed. The unit of weight is the manchádi, the seed of Abrus precatorius, a small, red berry of practically uniform weight when ripe. H. W. Gillman of the Ceylon Civil Service reports the weight of the man̄chádi to be 3.35 grains troy. Fractional parts of a unit are obtained by using a berry called kundumani, grains of rice, etc., whose weights have been determined beforehand. A brass weight—the kalan̄chǔ—is also employed; it equals 67 grains or 20 man̄chádi.
However, choice pearls—those of the superior classes—are not valued in this manner, but at so much per chevvǔ of their weight, which is three fourths of the square of the weight in man̄chádi. Thus, to find the value of an anatári pearl in the second sieve, if the weight be found to be three man̄chádi, three fourths of the square of three, or 6¾, is multiplied by the base value of the anatári class.
The actual process of the calculation of value is as follows: owing to the small size of the pearls, many fractions enter into the computations; to preserve uniformity it is customary to increase all fractions so that each may have 320 as a denominator, this being a common multiple of those that ordinarily arise in chevvǔ calculations. The weight in man̄chádi of the pearls is increased to a fractional figure having 320 as a denominator. Three fourths of the square of the numerator of this fraction is divided by the number of pearls, and this quotient is divided twice consecutively by 320, giving the chevvǔ of the weight. The market value then follows from the quoted price of the pearls per chevvǔ at the time.
In actual practice, these computations are not made; but each merchant provides himself with sets of tables showing the calculations for different weights, analogous to the use of interest tables by bankers, or of tables of logarithms by surveyors. Some of the merchants commit these tables to memory, and at times may be heard reciting them quietly to themselves to refresh the memory.
If a pearl of a particular grade and class is of exceptional merit, the merchant adds somewhat to the money value computed by the above process. This applies especially to double pearls of the kǔrǔval class, which sometimes consist of two fine bouton pearls suitable for setting, but not for stringing.
Pearls of one of the inferior or kalan̄chǔ classes are valued by simple weight, at so much per kalan̄chǔ, the market price, of course, differing for pearls of the various classes. The weight having been ascertained, each in its class as before noted, the value is determined by multiplying that weight by the current market price per unit of such pearls, at so many rupees per kalan̄chǔ.
NECKLACE CONTAINING 126,000 SEED-PEARLS. LOUIS XVI PERIOD
Property of an American lady