Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

Transcriber's Notes.

Hyphenation has been standardised.

A number of different spellings have been retained, e.g. rubies/rubyes, encrusted/incrusted.

THE PEARL

THE PEARL

ITS STORY, ITS CHARM,
AND ITS VALUE

BY
W. R. CATTELLE
AUTHOR OF
"PRECIOUS STONES"

WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS

PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
MDCCCCVII

COPYRIGHT, 1907

BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

Published September, 1907

_Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._

NOTE

In these pages the story of the pearl is told from its birth and growth under tropic seas, through the search for it by dark skinned divers of the Orient and its journeyings by the hands of men who traffic in precious things, until it becomes finally the cherished familiar of the great. Historical and traditional allusions, the sentiment and superstitions, the romance of ancient and noble associations, drawn to it through the ages, are garnered here and to them added the more prosaic facts which a merchant's experience suggests, to enable lovers of the dainty sea-gem to discriminate. The qualities which make some pearls of great value and the imperfections which render others less valuable are described in detail, that owners and buyers may appreciate at their true value the gems they have or would purchase and the market price of all kinds is given. Means for the detection of imitations are included.

Long time has been given to microscopic research and though much remains to be learned of the genesis of the pearl, it is hoped that something of value has been added to the knowledge of Nature's wonderful and curious processes whereby through the humblest she makes a jewel fit to adorn the most beautiful of her creatures—woman.

* * * * *

My thanks are due Messrs. Combes & Van Roden of Philadelphia for the loan of the original photographs from which were made the reproductions of the portraits of Queen Alexandra, The Marchioness of Londonderry, Countess Torby and Princess Lazareff, which will, I trust, be of great interest to lovers of pearls: also to Mr. Ludwig Stross for much valuable information about Oriental pearl fisheries.

W. R. C.

CONTENTS

PAGE

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE SEA 13

A PEARL OF LEGEND 25

ANTIQUITY OF THE PEARL 39

THE FASHION OF PEARLS 69

VARIETIES 89

COLOR 101

IMPERFECTIONS 111

GENESIS OF THE PEARL 127

METHODS OF FISHING 177

HABITAT OF THE PEARL OYSTER 199

PEARL FISHERIES 211

PRICE 275

IMITATION AND DOCTORED PEARLS 295

FACTS AND FANCIES 311

PEARLS IN LITERATURE 335

GLOSSARY 363

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PEARLS AND SHELLS
FROM THE VARIOUS FISHERIES 369

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

H. M. QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND HER PEARLS _Frontispiece _

THE RAJAH OF DHOLPUR 21
Whose Pearls Have Been Valued at $7,500,000

PRINCESS ABAMALEK LAZAREFF, NÉE DEMIDOFF 70
From the Painting by Vitelleschi

VARYING FORMS OF PEARLS 83

PANAMA PEARL-SHELL, SHOWING MUD-BLISTERS,
BORERS AND PEARL 92

TUAMOTU PEARL-SHELL 127

AUSTRALIAN PEARL-SHELL 129

VENEZUELAN PEARL-SHELL WITH PEARL ATTACHED 131

MANILA PEARL-SHELL WITH THE LIP CONSERVED 144

MISSISSIPPI NIGGER-HEAD PEARL MUSSEL 146

VENEZUELAN PEARL-SHELL SHOWING BAROQUE 161

NATIVE AUSTRALIAN PEARL-DIVERS 188

EAST INDIAN PEARL-DIVERS RESTING 215

PEARL-FISHING IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER 262

THE MARCHIONESS OF LONDONDERRY 283

COUNTESS TORBY 326

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE SEA

The sea in all her moods has a strange fascination for the children of the dry land. The rumble and thunder of her never ending procession of rolling breakers, rising and falling, tumbling over the sands, to race hissing back to shelter under the curling crest of an eternal successor; the mad recurring dash which cannot be discouraged, of great waters upon unyielding rocks whose grim faces smile at the spume fountains falling back upon them; the wash and mutter of rocky shoals; the suck and bellow of her caverns and the monotone she chants, heedless of hearers to the ages; all these charm the hearts of men and bring them into the fellowship of spirits they feel, but cannot understand. For the moods of the sea and the ways of the wind are akin to the heart of a man. His eyes dance with the flicker of light in the path of the sun over watery wastes; his breast heaves in unison with the multitudinous swellings of the sea; he finds peace in the slumber of her calms and exults in her mad race before the drive of the tempest, but he seldom thinks below the surface and knows little of the things she hides in her deeps. Yet a world lives there, very strange and full of enchantments. Sheltered under the breasts of the sea and undisturbed by the furies of the upper world, myriads of living creatures, graceful, beautiful, wonderful, traverse the peaceful depths. In the vast and fathomless solitudes, things grow and take on form, meet for the eyes of the gods. In everlasting touch with soft currents, trees of coral grow from rocky beds and finny tribes of every shape and hue glide in and out among their fantastic branches. Water covering all, on hills, plateaus, shelving stretches, sandy bars and rocky shoals; in valleys, chasms and even in the dread abysses, are things as strange to man as Jupiter or Saturn holds; weird as the creatures of our dreams; uncanny as the pictures a riotous imagination paints and some as beautiful.

Near the shore and a few miles out, where the bottom of the sea is but a few fathoms deep and where man can go and come and live, there are among other marvellous creations, shells of wonderful structure and beautiful to look upon. One by one these have been discovered during past ages by the adventurous and for their usefulness or beauty have awakened the desire of those who dwell upon the earth. The chank, the sacred shell of the Hindus, has been used by the priests of Buddha for centuries as a horn to call the faithful. Shankar the Destroyer, of Hindu mythology, and Vishnu, each hold a chank shell in one of their hands.

The shell whorl usually runs from left to right, sometimes it is found with the whorl reversed and these were so highly regarded by Hindus, Cingalese and Chinese that in old times they were sold for their weight in gold. Even now they bring a good price in the eastern markets. They are kept in the pagodas of China to hold the sacred oil: the priests of Ceylon administer medicine by them. In Dacca the chank is cut into armlets and anklets for Hindu women upon whose persons they are left after death. The delicate pink cameos carved from the Queen Conch have delighted feminine eyes of almost every race. The Pearly Nautilus decks many a dainty lady's table and is wrought into a thousand quaint conceits. The silky byssus of the Pinna has been woven into fabrics of such fineness as to be thought worthy of acceptance by Popes and princes.

Before Europe knew of their existence, the people of China and Japan, the Maoris of New Zealand, the Indians of our Pacific coast and the brown skinned natives of far-off islands of the Southern Seas, were delighting themselves with the magnificent coloring and iridescence of the Haliotis even as ancient Greece and Rome made ornaments from the "Venus Ear-shell," as they called it, brought from the ruder coasts and islands further west. In these later days the costly outer garments of proud dames are ornamented with buttons cut from the same resplendent shell. But of all the beautiful things old ocean pays as tribute to the adventurous spirit of man, the pearl-oyster and the gem found sometimes in it are most precious.

From unknown times when man discovered them until now, mother-of-pearl shells and their pearly treasures have held desire constant and the eyes of modern queens brighten when the opening of the gift casket reveals a string of these spheres of beauty just as eyes did in the far-off Indies thousands of years ago. When Europe was a land of barbarians and America an unknown country of savages, dusky fingers that held the life and destiny of millions, toyed lovingly with pearls, even as now the favored few who enter the sanctum sanctorum of fortune, pride themselves in the possession of them and find pleasure for cloyed desire, in every addition to their store.

In all ages, pearls have been the social insignia of rank among the highly civilized. No other gem was so abundantly used for adornment by the princes of the east. Above great diamonds from the mines of India or glowing rubies from Burmah, the ocean gem became peerless among the ancient nations of Asia and as their power began to wane and the tide of empire swept westward, there went with it the love of pearls. The rulers of Rome when she was Empress of the world sought pearls, so also have the rich and powerful of every nation as it rose to affluence, and now in this new western star of Empire the men who hold the vast wealth of these United States in their hands, when they place their consorts on the last plane of social eminence, buy pearls.

Before the machine-like system of modern industry had combined ownership and seized the vast natural reservoirs which hold the diamonds of Africa, and brought the output to a known average yield of so many carats to so many loads, and established the cost of mining, washing, shipping and marketing, separately or together, to the fraction of a penny, there was a fascination in the hunt for diamonds there, the charm of which drew thousands to the fields.

From the discovery of them as baubles in the hands of children and the Hottentots, or plastered in the mud walls of Boer farm-houses through the search for them along the Vaal River, to the time where findings led men to the kopjes, which capped the great chimneys of diamond bearing clay, where they staked and worked their individual claims, the ever present hope of finding a royal gem among the small stones which formed the every-day yield, gave edge to appetite and the spur to toil, and the stories of fortunes diverted from one man to another by the lapse of a few minutes at the beginning or expiration of a lease, or by the line separating the mining rights of one from another, read like fairy tales.

More exciting yet is the search for them when, as in Brazil, they lie scattered over the river beds where one man hunts in vain and another by chance stumbles upon a pocket full, or as in India, where one must dig for them blindly into detrital matter ten or twelve feet under a later covering of earth. Who has not felt the stir of it while reading of miners in Brazil using diamonds worth a king's ransom as counters in their games of chance, or of a naked Hindu, emaciated and diseased carrying about his person, wrapped in a bit of soiled cloth, a gem found by chance which the richest prince of India would covet. So also do the tales of rubies brought from Death's Valley of Burmah renew within us the glow which fired the heart of youth when we read of Aladdin and his lamp.

But none of these are so redolent of romance as the story of the pearl. Beneath the rolling of the sea, where the waves pace softly and restlessly like caged lions, or lift themselves roaring to answer the voice of the storm; where at times the water lies green and placid under burning skies; at times, lashed by tornado and monsoon, becoming a seething caldron of black perdition; where spice-laden vessels sail, and where in the old days, privateers and pirates lay in wait for prey, there, at the bottom of the sea, unruffled by storm or pirate, unmindful of sun and calm, myriads of delicate creatures toil ceaselessly to strew old ocean's bed with gems. The chaste spheres with which you toy, while counting up the cost of hanging them round some fair neck, at one time lay fathoms deep, the ocean rolling over them. Dusky fishermen, at risk of life, brought them up and turbanned merchants gave great sums of money to own them; ships carried them, and dealers in precious things handled, sorted, examined and matched them, ere they came to rest in festooned rows within the velvet covers your jeweller opens to you.

Whose pearls were valued at $7,500,000]

On almost every tropical sea that washes a shore near the equator, when the time of storm is over, boats ride over the shallows, and men dive from them for the pearl oyster as they have done for ages. Black slaves for Arab masters in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf: Tamil and Singhalese in the Indian waters: Polynesians about the islands of the South Seas: Indians and other natives along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of tropical America, and not a few white men in "dress" off the coasts of Australia. Your pearls have seen the dusky man-fish come silently and swiftly from the world of air to wrench the gaping shells that held them, from their anchorage. It may be your pearl lay twenty fathoms deep in the clear water of some lonely atoll in the great Pacific, among branching coral, and found its way from water's solitudes to the light of the Sun and admiring eyes by the hand of a bright-eyed Polynesian. It may have come from Egypt or the Indies, from Australia or Mexico; but from whatever quarter of the globe it came and by whom, it was born and grew somewhere at the bottom of the sea.

A PEARL OF LEGEND

Long ago, ere the great Nations of Europe came into existence; before Rome was, or Greece had made history: when the power of the Earth dwelt in the lands of the Sun and was for good or evil in the hands of princes, there lived in Travancore a ruler of renown. Of those who came from the north, he with his followers had subjugated the fierce native tribes inhabiting the country for many miles along the seacoast and back to the mountainous interior. Over all, to the utmost bounds of his territory, the land was fertile and very beautiful. Along the shores, but a short distance from the ocean, were numerous shallow stretches of water, formed by the meeting of the inland streams with the swift current of the sea which there sweeps the coast. In them fish abounded, yet were they free from the dangers of the outer waters, so that young and old could there disport themselves without fear. Though the tropic heat was often great there were no parched and barren wastes in the land, for the rains were many and the streams which ran to the sea from the mountains were numerous. Everywhere luxuriant verdure swayed to breezes that played to and fro over the rolling lowlands and about the hillsides, now coming from the water and now from the mountains. Coffee, rice, the palm, cocoanut, the areca-nut, the pepper, tamarind, and other tropical fruits and trees grew in rank abundance, and huge forest timbers sheltered many noble creatures of the wild.

At the first coming of this prince, fighting was constant and bloody. The hill tribes, more war-like than those of many lands, made frequent descents from their fastnesses, seeking by every ruse of barbarous warfare to exterminate the intruder. But this man was wary and alert. Possessing the confidence of his followers, they obeyed him with unquestioning obedience. Quick to move, merciless in his reprisals, he was soon feared by all the surrounding country and as it became known that he was also just and generous, peace presently followed.

Then did he seek to establish his kingdom wisely and well. He encouraged his subjects to cultivate the land, to fish the waters, and to trade with those who came by ship and over-land bringing all manner of things for barter.

Though he and his people were devout believers in the Veda, yet did he tolerate the faith of others, and considered the low-born, for Brahmanism had not yet established the extremes of caste which came later. He himself was a Kshattriya but he ruled the Brahmans and would not permit injustice to the Sudras, therefore was he as a god among his people.

And this prince was good to look upon. Tall and straight as a tree of the forest, the fine lines of his grave impassive face were made alive by the light of eyes keen as an eagle's, inscrutable as those of a lion when he looks beyond.

One son only had he, for the others had all fallen in battle. The son was like the sire, and the father's heart was knit to him as steel when it is welded.

Now the time came when it was good that the young prince should marry, for he was man-grown and had been invested with the sacrificial cord. So the prince his father said to him, "My son, thou standest alone to guard the manes of thy fathers. It is meet that the sons of my son be alive upon the earth, that when the time is come I die in peace and return to the place from whence I came, in confidence. I will find for thee a wife." And the young prince answered, "Let it be as my lord wills."

Now there was in the country beyond the hills, on the eastern coast of India, a prince whose daughter was famed for her beauty and he also was Kshattriya. To him the ruler of Travancore sent certain of those who were near him, and a wise priest in whom he had great confidence, to treat with the father of the maid. And these when they had arrived, made haste to do their lord's bidding, nor was it difficult to obtain his desire, for the prince of Travancore was in great repute. So as soon as could be, the maid become the wife of the heir of Travancore.

Report had not lied concerning the beauty of the girl, and such other qualities had she that the heart of her husband melted to her and became as the gold of a jewel when it holds a ruby most precious.

In due time a son was born to them, and the father and his sire and all the people with them were exceeding glad, for said they, "Now is wisdom and power established on the throne of Travancore and a son's son will guard the name of our lord."

Now when the princess was a maid in the land of her father, a Rover from the coast of Kandy had greatly desired her, and when she was carried away to Travancore he was very wroth. It was told that he would seek vengeance, but another year passed and another son came and both the children and the mother thrived.

But one day, when many sea-boats lay within the harbor of a city of Travancore where much trading was done with men who came from far-off countries and when multitudes were gathered there, it chanced that the princess passed by the market-place. Suddenly, a great number of them that were there from foreign shores, gathered together, and drawing swords, rushed upon the guards which accompanied her. These, with the bearers they over-powered, and ere the bewildered populace knew the meaning of the tumult, the princess was dragged from her attendants and hurried to a boat waiting and ready to sail. Immediately this glided swiftly toward the sea followed by many others manned by ruffians who had lately mingled with the men on shore as peaceful traders. They were followers of the Kandy Rover.

In a very little while, the King, with the trusted priest of his household, the prince and many picked men of the King's body-guard rode furiously to the water-side. The face of the King was very stern, but only in the flashings of his eyes could be seen the unrelenting vengeance which moved him. Quietly he gave orders to man his ships of war. Then it was found that every one of them had been damaged. Not until the sailors made ready to sail were the hindrances observable, and in no case was the evil great, or so that it could not be presently repaired, for fearing discovery the doers of it sought only to delay the sailing of the King's ships, as the ships of the Rover were swift, and after they were out of the harbor, Travancore had none which could overtake them. Then was the wrath of the King terrible to look upon.

Now while the prince and his followers chafed, and the dismayed populace watched the work of the men who sought to make the boats ready to sail, the King filled them with the fiercest of his soldiers, being resolved that if the pirate escaped him on the sea he would follow him to his lair with swift and overwhelming vengeance. While these things were being done, the Rover passed out to the open sea and in sight of all the people turned his prows to the south.

Then the Brahman, standing where the lapping waters encircled his feet, stretched forth his hands toward the white sails as they spread to the west wind and called upon Shankar to destroy the despoiler. Immediately the wind died out and the ships were becalmed. Then the heart of the King swelled with fierce joy.

At his orders all the lighter boats were filled with men and oars were provided that they might row to the attack, and the young prince stood in the front of the fastest one. But while the people whetted themselves for battle, the Brahman still stood and prayed. And presently the air became thick. Though no clouds appeared the sky faded rapidly from sight, and the sun could no more be seen and the light of it was as the color of fire in thick smoke only.

Darkness as of chaos and a silence like that of a dead world encompassed the people, and a great dread gripped them. Suddenly there came from the sea a breath of sighing broken by sobs very heartrending, and this was followed by the sound of churning and lashing water. Soon a furious wind swept the coast in gusts which rested only that they might gather strength to rage, as the rush of rioters is momentarily stayed between whiles. And the black air, writhing like smoke, was driven hither and thither, and shaken by the din of thunder. Fierce lightnings pierced the darkness and in passing gave lurid glimpses of the sea's frenzy and the wind-swept earth. But though the storm raged so that the roaring sickened the hearts of the people, the Brahman remained unmoved, his hands stretched toward the sea where the Rover and his fleet were when it began.

Presently the wind passed, and the people looking seaward saw that there were no ships there, but the foam of the surf was black with wreckage, and tossing in it were the forms of dead men. The Rover and his followers had all perished. But the joy of the King and his people was savage, and their thoughts were black, for the princess was with them that were destroyed. Then the people made haste to spread themselves along the coast to watch if perchance the gods might cast her ashore alive, but no living thing appeared, neither was her body seen.

Now while these things were being done, great clouds, very thick and black, gathered, and rolling together, poured themselves in torrents into the sea. So thickly did the rain fall that the waves were beaten down and the sea became as a threshing-floor on which the rain fell white and hissing. The Brahman watching, said "Behold! the Heavens weep," and turning, he went straightway to the temple.

For many hours thereafter did the torrents fall and all Travancore mourned, the lamentations of the people being very loud, for the King and his son were much beloved and it was known that the prince was sorely distressed, and the more so that his sword must needs be idle for there were none left upon whom he could take vengeance.

Now when the elements were at peace again, the King gave orders that certain fishermen of his people who were expert divers, should explore the bottom of the sea where the ships of the Rover were destroyed. One of these discovered the body of the princess and brought it to shore. And when they prepared it for burial, the women found fastened upon one of the hands a shell-fish, the two shells of which had closed upon a finger when it fell between them as they gaped. And when the shells were pried apart, there rolled from between them a round bone, white and shining, yet of a luster so soft and beautiful that no man had seen the like. And the Brahman when he saw it said, "Herein are the tears of Heaven which fell into the sea congealed and have become a gem which is beyond price." And he named it "Pearl," and carried it to the King. Then the King after he had heard the story of it, sent for the chief man of them that worked in gold and commanded him that he make for the pearl a setting most precious, and when it was done he gave it to the prince his son saying, "Above all things let this be first among the jewels of Travancore for-ever." And the prince when he looked upon it said, "The beauty of it is like the brightness of her eyes when they veiled themselves before my passion," and he prized it more than all the diamonds and rubies in his treasure-house.

From that day, when the fishermen dived for the chank, they sought also for shells like unto that in which the King's pearl was found, and after great rains many more pearls were brought from the depths of the sea, and fishermen following the coast, found them on the shoals between India and Kandy in great plenty. These were carried to the King, for no man dared to sell them, yet did the King reward the finders very liberally. So the store of them in the King's treasury grew, and for that there were no gems like them in all the earth, the fame of them spread, and travellers came from many and far-off lands to look upon the pearls of Travancore.

ANTIQUITY OF THE PEARL

How long the pearl has been used as a jewel is unknown. It is seen all through the pages of history, from the long ago days when records were inscribed on the leaves of plants, to the rapid-fire prints of to-day, which unceasingly scatter to myriads the knowledge of things as they occur.

Back of history, pearls loom everywhere in the mists of tradition like delicate but imperishable orbs of beauty set in the smoulder of burned out days and passions. And wherever their tranquil light attracts the eye of imagination, the ghosts of the great are seen, for pearls lie in the hair of royalty and clasp the fair necks of Queens. Upon them shine the eyes of turbanned princes who valued them above the blood and life of thousands of subjects. Shades of imperious fingers, long since fallen to the elements, toy with them: they deck the spectral gatherings of the mighty in all lands and ages, and there is no dream of song or story which does not hold them among the chief enchantments. As the fair moon hangs from the brow of night when she broods over lonely waters, so does the pearl shine in the shades of the ages.

In this country abundant evidence exists that before the advent of the white man, or of the red-skins as we know them, the aborigines, from the cold rise of the Mississippi to the glades of Florida, used them for their adornment. In savage wilds, and on coasts that knew not the sight of ships or other shores, copper-skinned natives treasured the glistening things they found in the mollusks of the sea-shoals and inland streams. Quantities of pearls have been found in the Indian mounds, many of them loose, others strung for necklaces and wristlets, some mounted in quaint and primitive fashion, all showing that in the days of unbroken forests and swarming game and roving tribes of untrammeled savages, in the tepees of the braves, their queens wore pearls even as they are worn now by fairer successors in the palaces reared where once were forests and camping-grounds. In those days the savage lords of the undivided earth knew nothing of whirring lathes and drills; of hardened points of steel turning with lightning rapidity and unerring precision. Slowly they burned a way through the gem with hot copper wire, destroying thereby with ruthless ignorance the delicate beauty of jewels fit for royalty. To them the slender prongs of gold with which the modern jeweller holds the lustrous balls, uncovered and in safety, were unknown. Instead, the savage set them in holes bored in the teeth of animals, possibly to enhance the relics of a great fight with some fierce beast that succumbed finally to his prowess: possibly to add beauty to the grim reminders of her lord's valor when he hung them round the neck of a favored mate. The Indian of this continent was much more primitive in the art of the jeweller than in the manufacture of implements for war and the chase. Gaudy colors extracted from plants and minerals appealed more to his unthinking eye than a chaste form of beauty. With these he could stain his blankets, record on skins of slaughtered animals his deeds, or paint in hideous signs upon his face the malignancy of war. His time and thought and ingenuity were given to things which would contribute to his master passion and glorify its deeds. The scalps of his enemies, the skins of animals he slaughtered, the feathers of birds that fell to his unerring arrow, the teeth of bears and mountain lions slain in desperate encounters, these were his jewels. Nor was his sexual instinct sufficiently refined to enthrone his mate. She was his slave, and her reward for toil was pride in his deeds and glory. He knew little of the tender homage which brings gifts and lays them at the feet of woman. Instinctively he made a setting for his pearls of bears' teeth, that they might carry the scent of blood and tell the story of his conquest. Nevertheless, among these rude tribes of wolfish savages, sequestered from the touch of other people more refined, the modest pearl found favor, and in it they unconsciously paid tribute to one of the purest forms of beauty. But even this recognition must have been the growth of years, possibly of ages, for not until the understanding of worth has become general among a people is value established, and only things valuable are stored. As desire for a thing for its inherent qualities spreads, there is added a larger number of those who seek to possess it for the profit they can make in supplying that desire. Not many years ago, fishermen along the streams of remote parts of Kentucky had no eye for the beauty of a pearl, and no knowledge that men and women lived who prized them. If while fishing, the fisherman's hook fell between the gaping valves of a mollusk it was immediately seized. The disgusted angler thereupon angrily pulled the nuisance out, and if upon disengaging the hook from the bivalve, he found within the shells a pearl, it was immediately tossed back into the stream for luck; for the beginning of a day's sport with a catch of that kind was ill-luck and the fates could only be appeased by the finding of a pearl, or a "mussel egg" as he would call it, in the mollusk, and its return to the water. There lives yet on the banks of the Clinch River, an old pearler, the distress of many a speculator for his knowledge of pearls and their value, who sometimes sorrowfully relates how he thus in bygone years angrily threw away many good pearls, one of them the finest "ball" pearl he has ever seen. If these gems were so regarded by the ignorant white settlers of the west until the advent of men who had learned to appreciate them either for their beauty or the price they would bring from the outside world, it may be surmised that the awakening of the ancient Indian to their beauty, must have been a much slower process, unassisted as it was by men from beyond their limits who had long regarded them as precious. At first, probably, pearls were thrown to the children as playthings, as diamonds were in the Cape: then the young squaws gradually opened their eyes to the fact that the white shining things enhanced the charms of their smooth copper skins by contrast: the brave sought them to please the maid he would bring to his tepee: perhaps rovers brought news that in the far south, in lands of houses and teocalli and much magnificence, or farther off among the Incas, these baubles were prized by the chiefs. So gradually it dawned upon some that the "eggs" of the mollusk were beautiful, and upon others that they could be bartered for skins, blankets, or arrows, possibly for a pony, and so they came to be gathered and stored and displayed as things which enriched the owner.

How far back in the ages the use of pearls on this continent extends cannot be estimated. The discovery of them in the mounds east of the Mississippi, which are credited to an ancient race that finally succumbed to the similar but more war-like red men found here when the country was discovered by Europeans, suggests many centuries. And the use of pearls to the extent manifest by the discoveries, favors the theory that the mound-builders had reached a degree of refinement never attained by the North American Indians of record. When white men invaded the North American continent, they found tribes of red men as rugged as the coasts of New England. Inured to hardships, despising pain, contemptuous of death, they lived by hunting and found their chief pleasure in the slaughter of their enemies. Camping at will, their lodges were here to-day and there to-morrow, and brutal if heroic, they roamed over fields once inhabited by a race which had passed, but left evidence that they were sufficiently civilized to appreciate the pearl.

In Florida and South America, the conditions, when the country was discovered by the Spaniards, were different. The ancient races, corresponding with the mound-builders of the north, undisturbed by the incursions of stronger tribes, had continued to progress and had reached a high degree of barbarous luxury.

In Mexico, when Montezuma gave audience to Cortez, he was ablaze with gold and silver and precious stones. His cloak and sandals were adorned with pearls. Pearls were used to decorate temples, canoes and even the paddles. Indian women had great strings of them coiled around their necks and arms, and the chiefs used them freely on all occasions of state. It was the same on the Colombian coasts.

At the island of Cubagua and on the main coast, Columbus found great quantities of pearls, as did De Soto and his followers when they landed at Tampa Bay, known by the Spaniards as "Spiritu Santo," in Florida in 1539. The Incas of Peru also owned many fine pearls. Though the natives of all these countries ignorantly injured the gems by cooking the oyster to extract them, or by their crude methods of boring, and reckoned them of little value as compared with the European idea, they nevertheless esteemed them as jewels and must have done so for ages, for the invaders found them in the sepulchres of the dead, so altered by the processes of time that they retained nothing of their original beauty.

From these premises therefore it can be said of the antiquity of the pearl in this hemisphere, that it had been used as a jewel for some centuries before the early part of the sixteenth century.

The European regard for the pearl at this time may be estimated by the eagerness with which pearls were sought on the American continent by the adventurers of Spain, and by the pains they took on the arrival here of a new expedition, to convey assurances to the King of Spain that pearls were to be had in the new conquest. In the commission appointing De Soto to the governorship of Cuba, and as adelantado of Florida, Charles V. stipulated that of the gold, silver, stones and pearls, obtained by barter or in battle or otherwise, a certain portion should be reserved for the Crown.

In all the courts of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the pearl was, if not the chief, one of the most prominent jewels. Mary, Queen of Scots, possessed a rosary of pearls which excited the envy of Catherine de Médicis and Elizabeth of England, both of whom sought diligently to acquire them when the Scotch Queen became mired by misfortune.

The virgin queen of England when she went in state to chapel, wore pendent pearls in her ears after the fashion of Rome, and borders of large pearls fastened on her dress. When in her time Sir Thomas Gresham of London, a wealthy subject, wished to show the Spanish Ambassador, who had boasted of the magnificence of his Sovereign's court, how prodigal her liege subjects could be in her honor, nothing occurred to him more striking than to grind to powder a large pearl and mix it with the wine he drank to her health. This act of the English merchant shows that the pearl was then regarded by the great as the acme of costliness and beauty.

From the reign of Francis I. of France to that of Louis XIII. the pearl was prominent in all jewels of note, and from that time to the death of Maria Theresa of Austria toward the close of the eighteenth century, it was worn in preference to all other gems. It was during the reign of Louis XIII. that Tavernier, the celebrated French Jeweller and traveller, assisted by that monarch, made his journeys into Asia. The account of his travels, published later, are highly esteemed for their truthfulness, and are regarded as exact, if prosaic statements of fact.

The desire for the gem in Europe at this time was so great that Tavernier purchased over half a million dollars' worth from the Arabian Sea. Probably the immense quantities of pearls sent to Spain from the Indies by her rovers in the early part of the sixteenth century, caused the vogue of that gem during the three centuries following, for not much mention is made of them in western Europe prior to that time. Nevertheless pearls were esteemed in the British Isles as early as the eleventh century, for it is recorded that Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick, sent a present of Irish pearls from the fishery at Omagh, to Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, about 1094, and Scotch pearls were not only in demand in Britain but on the continent also as early as the twelfth century. In 1355, the Parisian goldsmiths forbade by statute, workers in gold and silver to set Scotch pearls with the Oriental.

The Oriental pearl probably came into Europe first from Egypt through the incursions of the Macedonians into that country. Later, when Alexander overran Persia his followers doubtless became yet more familiar with the gem, for they spread through Arabia and the Persian Gulf where ancient fisheries also existed.

Pearls were not well known west and north of Asia and Africa at this time, for a writer of Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, about 350 B.C., which was but a few years before Alexander's conquest of Persia, says: "In the Indian Sea, off the coasts of Armenia, Persia, Susiana and Babylonia, a fish like an oyster is caught, from the flesh of which men pick out white bones called by them 'pearls'." This would indicate that knowledge of them was being carried at that time by returning soldiers, camp-followers and travellers, and these men probably brought home also many of the "white bones" obtained by trade or looting. Whatever the method by which they were introduced, pearls came into favor, and the favor increased as they were brought with other jewels from the looted treasuries of eastern potentates. The Macedonians established fisheries in the Red Sea, where the Egyptians obtained their chief supply, and the Romans later brought them also from the Arabian Sea.

Three centuries B.C., the power of the Macedonians commenced to wane; Rome began to rise and overrun the countries which had been subject to the Macedonians; and pearls were thereby carried further west. The Romans adopted the pearl as a jewel of the first importance if not the chief of all, probably because they had found them so regarded by the older royalties they plundered. As the riches of surrounding and far-off countries which she raided, poured into the coffers of Rome, and the city grew to be the centre of power and wealth, the excesses of the rich became ludicrous to the verge of insanity. In their wild extravagances the pearl was prominent.

Affected doubtless by the splendor of Asiatic courts, the rude soldiers of Rome learned to regard the pearl as a royal luxury, and therefore adopted it as a sign of great wealth and power. Enormous sums were paid for pearls of rare size and beauty. Great leaders of men vied with each other in the effort to add to their collections. It is said that Julius Cæsar's chief incentive for pushing his conquests into the west so far, was his desire to obtain the pearls to be found in the streams of the British Isles. The Emperor Caligula decked his favorite horse with a necklace of pearls. Pliny says of Lollia Paulina, Caligula's wife, that he had seen her so bedecked with pearls and precious stones that "she glittered and shone like the sun as she went." Clodius, the glutton, claiming for them a very delicate flavor, placed one by the plate of each guest at a great banquet to be mixed with the wine. This same profligate, either setting the example or emulating Cleopatra, swallowed in a cup of wine one worth eight thousand pounds that he might have the pleasure of consuming so much value at once.

If in the intrigues so common then, a woman's influence was required, pearls were given her. To convey an indirect bribe to a man of high station a pearl of great price was presented to a member of his family. Women wore them while they slept that they might possess them in their dreams; they hung them in loose clusters suspended from the ears, that the tinkling might remind them of the beauty they could not see, and to attract the admiration and envy of others. These were called "crotalia," meaning "rattles." Young men of fortune in Athens and Rome followed the Persian fashion of wearing one in the right ear, hung as a clapper in a small bell of metal. So strong and general did the desire to own them become that Cæsar forbade unmarried women, and women under a certain rank, to wear them.

Perhaps never in the history of jewels has the vogue of one so nearly approached a frenzy as that of the pearl in Rome during her days of extreme power and grandeur. The high esteem in which it was held there is reflected in the Scriptures. The Saviour used it in His parables as a symbol. The gates of the Holy City, as the prophet John saw it in his vision, were pearls. From that time until now, writers have used pearls to symbolize purity, innocence and the highest type of feminine beauty. To say that a woman's teeth were like pearls has been the poets' favorite adulation, and the discovery and sale of great pearls has been deemed of sufficient importance by travellers and historians to record them.

Much of the literature of pearls is founded on the statements of Pliny regarding them: many, if not most, of the absurd beliefs as to their origin and superstitions concerning them, may be traced to the same source; and though these ancient errors have been repeatedly exposed by later scientists and naturalists the poetic absurdities of the industrious Roman compiler, gathered from contemporaneous writers and tradition are current to-day, for they appeal more to the child-like human love of the indefinite wonderful than the exact statements of research, though the latter are really more marvellous.

Though jewels are regarded by many as baubles and of little account among the great commercial interests of the world, they have been an important factor in shaping the destiny of nations, changing the borders of great countries and thereby aiding the progress of civilization. As pearls helped materially to bring Rome to the British Isles and the colonists of Spain to South America, so it is quite probable that the pearls of Egypt had their influence in drawing the Macedonians to that country, to be followed by the Romans when the latter sought to overturn the Macedonian empire. Beyond this, their influence among those who held the reins in the government of empires, or those having power with them that did, cannot be estimated.

Passing beyond the days of Greece and Rome to more remote times and countries, we come to the realms of conjecture. We know that pearls were known and used as jewels in Egypt under the Ptolemies. Chares of Mytilene mentioned that they were worn by women of the East about the neck and arms and even upon the feet. It is said there is a word for them in a Chinese dictionary four thousand years old.

There is evidence that they had been used in India and the far East long before the West had knowledge of those countries, but we have nothing recorded which penetrates the past beyond three to four hundred years B.C., for there is not as much mention made of them in ancient writings familiar to the West as of other precious stones. Nevertheless the pearl is among the most ancient in the nomenclature of jewels because when it did come to be written of only the one thing could be meant. Nature produces nothing similar with which it could be confounded, whereas it is not certain that the diamond, ruby, and other stones as we know them, were intended when the names by which we designate them were used. Such indiscriminate use of names has been made by translators that it is difficult to determine what the stones really were about which ancient authors wrote. The names of those in the Jewish High Priest's breastplate, given in our English version of the Old Testament, undoubtedly misrepresent the stones actually used, and the only thing authorities agree upon regarding the names is that they are incorrect.

As there was no definite knowledge of the crystallography and chemistry of stones in the old days, writers referred to them often in general terms rather than by specific names, and these were translated into the names of later times according to the understanding of the translator, who had neither expert knowledge of his own nor reliable literature from which to gather information or guidance. An illustration of this general confusion occurs in the book of Job XXVIII. 18. It is written there, "No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls; for the price of wisdom is above rubies." Scholars tell us that the words translated here "coral" and "pearls," signify "found in high places," and are thought to be precious stones though the variety is unknown. The Targum renders the first "Sandalchin," probably our sardonyx. Junius and Tremellius translated it "Sandaztros" in their Latin version of the Old Testament, whereas Pliny described it as a sort of carbuncle having shining golden drops in the body of it.

After the same manner the last sentence, "For the price of wisdom is above rubies" is rendered by the great oriental scholar Bochart, "The extraction of wisdom is greater than the extraction of pearls," and other authorities agree with him.

Although there is evidence that many if not all the precious stones of to-day were known and used by the ancients, it is equally evident that they were much confounded and very roughly classified by general appearance only, and as various peoples gave them different names, all records of them are as misleading as the recorders were ignorant of their differential qualities. Even with the rapid increase of knowledge in the last few centuries, not until quite lately has science drawn the lines clearly between stones similar in appearance though essentially different and furnished means for the detection of those inherent differences. It is impossible therefore to learn by ancient writings how long any of the precious stones have been known and used as jewels, for we do not know positively what the stone was by the name given in old writings or by the translator of them. The pearl only has not been thus generally confounded with other gems.

Once only are pearls mentioned in the Old Testament—the instance quoted from the book of Job. It would seem therefore, that although used as jewels, they were not regarded as of great value in the East prior to about 400 years B.C., at which time the last of the sacred Jewish books is supposed to have been written. True, royalty wore them in Egypt and the people of Persia and Arabia used them very generally for personal adornment; but they were abundant in those countries and there had been no demand for them beyond their borders, therefore, though beautiful, they were common and not appreciated fully. Upon the influx of foreign invaders from shores that yielded no such gems their status changed rapidly. The greedy avidity with which Greeks and Romans seized them, and the demand for them from the West which came later, gave these natives of pearl-producing shores a new idea of the value of their pearls and the trinkets became gems.

It was a condition similar to that which arose nineteen hundred years later when the Spaniards invaded America. At their first coming the natives gave them freely large quantities of pearls and gleefully traded magnificent gems for broken pieces of gaudily painted and varnished porcelain. As one to-day might take a new acquaintance for a day's fishing to a well-stocked stream, so the Indians took the Spaniards to the pearl banks to show them how they obtained their pearls. With pleasure and probably some amusement, they watched the eagerness with which the strangers sought the pearls, and doubtless wondered at the gratification displayed when they found any.

The Egyptians and Asiatics being more highly civilized undoubtedly valued their pearls more than the South American Indians did, but naturally they would not appreciate them so highly as they did after foreign desire had depleted their hoards and established a constant demand for them, greater than the yield of their fisheries.

That this condition prevailed in Egypt and Asia prior to the advent of Europeans, is indicated by the apparent ignorance of the writer of the book of Job concerning pearls. The word used in Chapter XXVIII. 18 is simply the translator's sign for an unknown quantity, and as the pearl is an apt symbol and illustration of many ideas connected with or embodied in the cult of the Jewish Church, the fact that the Jewish writers did not so use it, though the precious metals and other precious stones were so used, and though their books were written in various countries, suggests that the pearl in those days was not reckoned of equal importance with gold and silver and stones like those set in the Jewish High Priest's breastplate for instance.

That a very considerable change in the world's estimate of the pearl took place during the four centuries B.C. is illustrated by the references made to pearls in the New Testament. Rome had made of the "white bones from a shell-fish" of the fourth century B.C., a gem for the rich and powerful and so generally established it in the public estimation that the sacred writers used it to illustrate their greatest conceptions of beauty and spiritual worth.

The Saviour likened the Kingdom of Heaven to "a pearl of great price:" under the similitude of pearls He counseled the reservation of holy things from men incapable of appreciating them. Paul and John numbered them among the costly adornments in the pride of life and with the most precious articles of merchandise. From that day, with the extension of commerce, and the growth of Western nations in affluence and refinement, the demand for pearls grew and spread until even the rude island of Britain learned to appreciate them.