+> 
Distribution of Pearls and Peart-shell, Ti 
north-east coast of Portuguese East Africa, was inhabited 
by a Semitic colony, which located there to fish for pearls, 
and these were carried through the Red Sea to King 
Solomon. He adds that there is little doubt that, after 
the great emigration which started from the Persian Gulf 
in 982 and founded Zanzibar, Kilwa, and Sofala on the 
coast, some Arabs engaged in fishing for pearls about the 
islands near Sofala.” 
The evidence of early pearl fishing on the coast of 
East Africa is significant in view of the implied association 
between megalithic culture and pearls. In the map which 
illustrates Mr. Perry’s paper (of. ¢z¢., p. 10), the presence of 
the pearl-shell is not indicated on the coasts of Zanzibar 
and Madagascar “two localities which are suggestive when 
the presence of megalithic monuments in Rhodesia and 
Madagascar is recalled” (p. 11). Another important link 
is afforded by the discovery of beads made from the shell 
of the common Unio or fresh-water mussel ( Unzo verreamxz) 
in graves in the vicinity of Bulawayo, Rhodesia." 
The Persian Gulf has been famous as a source of 
pearls from ancient times. A very early origin of pearl 
fishing here seems to be indicated by a cuneiform in- 
scription on a broken obelisk, erected presumably by a 
king of Nineveh, which has been translated by Jules 
Oppert, the eminent Assyriologist.” The fisheries were 
well known in the time of Alexander, and are referred to 
by Pliny’ as yielding the most valuable pearls. Isidorus 
of Charace, a Greek historian, czvca 300 B.C., mentions 
the pearl fishing in this neighbourhood in his account of 
the Parthian Empire, and gives a fanciful story of the 
influence of thunderstorms on the breeding of pearls.” 
16 Kunz and Stevenson, of. cz¢., p. 513. 
SU HH TBS Ve tN 
Se Te limiyatoe Nile a, Dice Icey Clee 54 
19 Athenzeus, ‘‘ Deipnos,” bk. iii., ch. 46. 
