PEARLS AND IMITATION PEARLS 91 



silver, and precious stones, while his cloak and 

 sandals were adorned with pearls. 



No one knows when pearls were first used as orna- 

 ments in the Orient. The Hindu princes have sur- 

 prising quantities of large, beautiful pearls which 

 have been handed down from generation to genera- 

 tion for many centuries. The rajah of Dholpur 

 possessed pearls valued at $7,500,000. During the 

 reign of Louis XIII, Tavernier, the celebrated 

 Frenchman, traveled into Asia in search of pearls 

 and precious stones. He found that the Arabians 

 and other Asiatics possessed an amazing number of 

 very fine pearls, and he brought back to France more 

 than half a million dollars' w^orth of them. 



It is probable that pearls were utilized for orna- 

 mental purposes in the tropics many centuries before 

 their use became general in cooler climes, for pearl- 

 bearing shell-fish are much more numerous in warm 

 waters than in the cooler waters of the temperate 

 and frigid zones. Perhaps pearls were the playthings 

 of the children of the prehistoric shell-fishermen. At 

 all events, savage men did not prize them highly; 

 such pale, delicate gems were not gaudy enough to 

 attract them. But, with the growth of intelligence 

 and refinement, there came increasing appreciation 

 of these lovely jewels, until now the pearl is con- 

 sidered to be one of the most precious and beautiful 

 of all objects of human adornment. 



The early Egyptians used pearls as ornaments, 

 but it was not until the age of the Ptolemies that they 

 became plentiful. Cleopatra, famous queen of Egypt, 

 had many pearls of great size and fine quality and 



