46 NOTES. 



the course of a few months, present the appearance of real pearls. 

 As soon as this curious process is supposed to be completed, the 

 muscles are drawn up and robbed of the treasure tliey contain. 

 The truth of this extraordinary statement may be implicitly relied 

 upon ; it is confirmed by the testimony of respectable travellers, 

 and the result of various experiments. — Dillwyn. 



Julius Caesar, presented Servillia, the mother of Brutus, with 

 a pearl, for which he paid ^48,457. The famous ear-ring^s which 

 the profligate Cleopatra dissolved in vinegar, and drank to the 

 health of Mark Antony, were valued at ^161,458. In emula- 

 tion of which, Clodius presented each of his guests with a glass 

 of vinegar, in which a valuable pearl had been dissolved. One 

 in the possession of Philip II. of Spain, was estimated at 

 140,800 ducats. A pearl mentioned by Tavernier, in the hands of 

 the Emperor of Persia, was bought in the year 1633, of an Arab, 

 for 32,000 tomans, which at three pounds nine shillings tlie 

 toman, amounts to ;^110,400 sterling. — Rees. 



As late as the beginning of the sixteenth century, Ireland 

 also boasted her pearl fisheries, and several beautiful specimens 

 were brought from the rivers of Tyrone and Donegal, one of 

 which came into the possession of Lady Glenleary, who wore it 

 in a necklace, and refused ^80 which was offered for it by the 

 Duchess of Ormond. — Pennant's British Zoology. 



The pearl is elegantly termed by the oriental writers, Maigion 

 or a globe of light. It is customary among the Turks, to send 

 letters to their distant friends, entirely composed of various little 

 articles to which some meaning is attached — in these the Margion 

 always holds a conspicuous station, and signifies " fairest of the 

 voung" as a rose, "may you be pleased, and your sorrows mine." 

 The Persian poet, Meskin Aldaramy, in allusion to these fanciful 

 associations, has thus elegantly compared his friends to a string 



