AVICULID.E. — SEA- WING. 97 



was priceless." In ] 779 a pearl, which from its shape 

 was called the " Sleeping Lion/' was offered for sale 

 at St. Petersburg, by a Dutchman; it weighed 578 

 carats, and was bought in India for £4500. 



The largest pearl known, I believe, is in the possession 

 of Mr. Beresford Hope ; it weighs three ounces, and is 

 two inches long, and two and a half inches in circum- 

 ference, and is set as a pendant : and the pearl necklace 

 of the Empress of the French is one of the finest known. 

 The Shah of Persia has a pearl valued at £60,000.* 



In India rose-coloured pearls are much esteemed, 

 for red pearls (Lohitamukti) form one of the seven 

 precious objects which it was incumbent to use in the 

 adornment of Buddhistic reliquaries, and to distribute 

 at the building of a Dagopa.f 



Marco Polo states, that in the island of " Chipangu " 

 (the kingdom of Japan) , the Chinese " Jih-pan-kive," 

 rose-coloured pearls were abundant, and quite as 

 valuable as the white ones, and that there some of the 

 dead were buried and others were burnt, and that 

 when a body was burnt they put one of these rose- 

 coloured pearls in the mouth " for such is their 

 custom. "J These rose-coloured pearls were no doubt 

 those found in the conch shells. 



The most productive pearl-fishery banks lie on the 

 west coast of Ceylon, between the eighth and ninth 

 degree of north latitude, near the level dreary beach of 

 Condatchy, Aripo, and Manaar.§ The other principal 



* 'A Manual of Precious Stones and Antique Gems,' by Hodder 

 M. Westropp. 



+ ' Nat. Hist, of Precious Stones,' by Koeppen as quoted in Yule's 

 ' Marco Polo.' 



X * The Book of Ser Marco Polo,' by Colonel Henry Yule, C.B. 



§ ' Voyage of the Novara,' vol. i. pp. 37£— 381. 



H 



