THE PEARL OYSTER. 919 



gealed in oyster-shells ; and Benjamin of Tudela authori- 

 tatively stated that " in the month of March the rain-water 

 falling on the surface of the sea is swallowed by the mothers- 

 of-pearl, and carried to the bottom of the sea ; these, being 

 fished for and opened in September, are found to contain 

 pearls." Marbodus, a writer of the first century, set forth 

 the same theory in his " Lapidarium," as we gather from a 

 graceful paraphrase of his crabbed verse: "At certain 

 seasons do the oysters lie, With valves wide gaping toward 

 the teeming sky, And seize the falling dews, and, pregnant, 

 breed The shining globules of the ethereal seed." For 

 the darker shades of colour displayed by certain pearls he 

 accounts as follows : " Brighter the offspring of the morn- 

 ing dew ; The evening yields a duskier birth to view." 

 The erudite author of "Pearls and Pearling Life " points 

 out that poets have deemed the "chaste and charming 

 gem " worthy of a more sacred paternity than that attri- 

 butable to a commonplace rain-drop ; hence their assump- 

 tion that pearls were formed " from tears wept by angels, 

 or shed by mortals under circumstances of peculiar trial." 

 In Mani-Mala, " The Chain of Gems," Rajah Sourindro 

 Mohun Tagore, only nine years ago, recorded the " general 

 belief" prevalent, we presume, in his native country 

 that the pearl originates in clouds, elephants, boars, conch- 

 shells, fish, serpents, oysters, and bamboos ; the cloud 

 pearl being the rarest and most valuable of all these 

 varieties, while that lurking in the serpent's crest is "em- 

 bosomed in a blue halo of surpassing glory, like the flash 

 of a polished sword," and may not even be looked at by 

 " persons void of merit." 



The same learned Oriental magnate dilates eloquently 

 upon the medicinal virtues of pearls, which, ground into 

 powder, are still prescribed by native practitioners through- 



