PEAELS. 281 



his familiarity with the sacred writings^ he frequently referred 

 to the patriarch Job^ who preferred wisdom to pearls. After 

 a long discourse on the emptiness of human grandeur, he 

 drew from his leather pouch a few small opake gems, which 

 he desired Humboldt to accept, enjoining him at the same 

 time to note on his tablets that a poor shoemaker, of Cas- 

 tihan race, had gratuitously resigned, without a sigh, pearls 

 which, on the other side of the great waters, were anxiously 

 sought after. 



How many sad and serious thoughts are blended 

 "With thee, pure ocean gem, that comest up. 

 Within thy rugged car, from deepest waters. 

 Merchants of Tyre and Sidon, in past days. 

 Sought to possess thee. Ocean's gem, thou purest 

 Of Nature's works ! what days of weary jourueyings, 

 What sleepless nights, what toils o'er land and sea, 

 Are borne by men to gain thee ! 



The finest pearls are unquestionably not of occidental but 

 of oriental growth. From the earliest period of authentic 

 history the Indian seas and rivers were celebrated for their 

 production. " They are rich," says a native writer, " with 

 pearls and ambergris ; their mountains are stored with gold 

 and precious stones; their gulfs inhabited by creatures 

 yielding ivory ; and among the plants and trees with which 



