October 1932
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
427
1
W PEARL
By DONALD D. TURNER* Porlamar, Margaritaf'Venezuela
ios T e S alve ” was the name of the little sailboat in which we left Porlamar, Margarita, Venezuela, for our first trip to the pearl fishers’ huts along the coast of the Caribbean. We had not been out long before we appreciated the meaning of the boat’s name: “ May God save you.” The sailors sighted a large school of sardines with several sharks and other large fish after them. One immense shark seemed almost as long as our fifteen-foot boat, but the na tives said that it was only ten or twelve feet. We sailed right through the center o f the sardines and, using poles, played at harpooning the sharks, hitting some but doing no damage, although two or three came within arm’s reach. Having learned all we desired there, we left the sar dine school, and the men arranged the dragnets, throwing them overboard to see what they would pick up. These nets, or rastras, have a flat iron blade that drags on the ocean floor, with iron arms bent to form the mouth of the net, which is fastened behind and ends in a ring to which the cala, or drag-rope, is tied. The fishing is done at any depth up to seventy feet. Generally, each boat carries two rastras, both worked on the same side, one in front and the other in the back, the right distance apart to properly guide without the rudder, as all four sailors are busy when haul ing in. We were told that a boat usually brings in from ten to twenty gunny sacks of oysters each day at the beginning of the season. This amount slowly decreases until it is less than half that amount. Those who use divers in regular diving suits get about double this production. S eekers A fter P earls Soon we landed at the ranchería in Las Maritas. Very crude palm huts were used as temporary shelters from the sun, and the men sat on tiny cross-legged chairs to open the oysters. Sometimes several boats are owned by one man, and all their men use the same shed. Each haul must be kept separate, and disputes are frequent over two or three oysters falling from one pile onto common ground. Who knows what they might contain ? As we went from one hut to. another, offering tracts and asking, “ What luck?” we were given various receptions. Some took the literature eagerly, saying that they had read tracts before and liked the gospel. Others were indifferent and said that they could not read. Occasionally an “ enemy” was found. A few had crosses and images on the sand be side them, in the vain hope that thus their “ luck” would be better. As one man can open only three or four sackfuls of oysters in a day, the larger sheds had several men open ing the shells, while the owner or his representative watch ed them. It was to this supervisor that we talked and o f fered a gospel, unless some one else spoke up. Anything *Missionary o f the Orinoco River Mission.
that might take the men’s minds off their work did not meet with approval. As the oysters are opened, the upper half of the shell is cpt loose and thrown into a basket. The men then search for pearls with their eyes and fingers. When they have taken out the pearls, or else discovered that there are none, they place the flesh o f the oyster in a can and pile the shells apart. After dark each night, when the men can open shells no longer, they cook the oysters, boiling them until they almost fall to pieces. During the balance of the night, this flesh rots in a barrel standing by the shore. At dawn, the ranchero pours in water, stirs the whole vigorously, and then drains off the “ soup,” leaving the dregs in the bottom of the barrel. In these dregs are found many pearls, which, although they are small, make this precaution worth while. Years ago, when the fishing was good, the oysters were left to rot in any old, abandoned boat, or in a vat of some kind, the pearls falling to the bottom to be picked out of the corruption when the work tvas over. One of our members in Puerto Fermin, a tall Guaiqueri Indian, told me of his experience in Maracaibo. He was almost overwhelmed one morning as he saw the sin and vice on every hand, follow ing always in the wake of the oil boom. Later, sitting in the plaza, he noticed one of his countrymen pass by with a Bible and hymnal in his hand. Following the man, he soon entered the Evangelical Church. As he gazed from the doorway upon the Christians, he thought of the times when he had buried his arms in the corruption of oysters in an old hull and brought up the shining pearls. So were these gems reached by Christ’s powerful arms out of the corrup tion that is in the world through lust. T he F orming of the P earls Pearls are the only precious stones produced by a living organism, instead of being formed in the earth. And they are the result of the suffering of the living organism. A grain of sand, or possibly some small animal of the sea, fleeing from an enemy, takes refuge inside the oyster. The shells then close, and the intruder is covered by a secre tion. Little by little, the nacre is put on it, and the oyster forms the precious gem out of this thing that intruded upon its peace. Oh, that we poor humans might so transform our so-called “ crosses” into shining jewels for our Maker! Considering the church as the pearl and Christ as the Merchant who gave up His all to purchase her, let us re member that our luster depends upon the One who suffered in order to make us His jewels. If the pearl is not com pletely covered by the flesh o f the oyster, it becomes ex posed to the action of the sea water. The iodine and salt attack the nacre of the pearl and kill it, the result being a dull gray stone that is valueless. So the. Christian was in the world without the beauty of holiness, until Christ cov-
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