82. Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 
issued in order to stem the tide of extravagance which 
threatened the ruination of all classes. Julius Cassar 
issued an edict, prohibiting the use of purple and pearls 
to all persons who were not of certain rank, and the latter 
also to unmarried women.” 
The mother-of-pearl was evidently appreciated in 
Northern Italy long anterior to the time of the Roman 
Empire, as the shell of the pearl-oyster of Eastern seas 
has been found in ancient hut foundations, reported to be 
of Neolithic age, near Reggio Emilia.“ This discovery 
would seem to indicate very early intercourse with the 
advanced culture of the East. Further evidence in 
support of this is furnished by discoveries of conch-shell 
trumpets and broken Purpura shells in Ligurian caves, to 
which attention has been called in the other chapters 
of this book. 
It is probable that the ancient Hebrews valued pearls 
for ornamental purposes, doubtless obtaining them by 
commerce with the Phcenicians. It is remarkable, how- 
ever, that the Hebrew word, gabish, translated “ pearl,” 
occurs but once in the Old Testament. Some doubt 
exists even here as to the true significance of the word, 
some writers claiming that it relates to some other sub- 
stance, probably “crystal.” In the New Testament and 
in the Talmud are to be found frequent references to 
pearls, which show how these gems were estimated by 
the Jews. Mother-of-pearl is still a commodity of general 
traffic in Palestine, where it is carved by the inhabitants 
into various religious ornaments.” 
26 Lovell, ‘‘ Edible British Mollusca,” 1884, p. 92; Streeter, of. #7, 
pp. 39-40; Kunz and Stevenson, of. c7é., p. 9. 
®* Mosso, ‘The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization,” 1910, p. 269, 
quoting Colini, Atté de//a Soctela romana d’ Antropologia, vol. X., 1904. 
#7 Streeter, of. cié., p. 32; Kunz and Stevenson, of. cit., pp. 6-7. 
