20! Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 
ture. Allusions are made to pearls so brilliant that they 
were visible at a distance of nearly a thousand yards. 
Rice, it is alleged, could be cooked by the light from them. 
One found about the beginning of the Christian era, near 
Yangchow-fu, province of Kiang-su, was reported so 
lustrous as to be visible in the dark for a distance of 
three miles.” 
The “Cheng Yii K’ao,” compiled by Ch’iu Chin, 
alias Wen Chuang, a famous scholar of the Ming dynasty 
(born A.D. 1419; died 1495),” contains several interesting 
references to pearls, some of the most curious being that 
“pearls can ward off the calamity of fire” ; “the mermaid 
wept tears that became pearls” ; “ Ma Ku threw grains of 
rice which became pearls”; and: “ He who cut open his 
stomach to hide the pearl loved mammon more than his 
life.” T’ai Tsung of the T’ang dynasty (A.D, 627—650), 
when warning his minister against covetousness, and 
licentiousness, said that those who were guilty of these 
offences were as worthy of ridicule as the merchant from 
Syria, who opened his stomach to hide the pearl. One 
Chinese work states that when the whale dies, its eyes 
are changed into pearls.” 
Regarding the origin of pearls many fantastic theories 
are to’ be found in ancient Chinese literature. By some 
writers they are credited as originating in the brain of 
the fabled dragon, and frequent allusions are made to 
pearls under the throats and in the mouths of these 
creatures. In China and Japan, as well as in India, pearls 
were considered to be in the special possession of dragon- 
** De Groot, of. ci/., p. 277; Kunz and Stevenson, of. cif, p. 5. 
*® See translation by J, Hf. Stewart Lockhart in ‘* A Manual of Chinese 
(uotations,” Hong Kong, 2nd Ed., 1903. 
%° Jhidy pp. 395 and 402. 
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