434 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book IX. 



cautions against danger ; the divers, they say, take especial care 

 to find these, and when once they are taken, the others stray to 

 and fro, and are easily caught in their nets. We learn also 

 that as soon as they are taken they are placed under a thick 

 layer of salt in earthen- ware vessels ; as the flesh is gradually 

 consumed, certain knots, 31 which form the pearls, are dis- 

 engaged 32 from their bodies, and fall to the bottom of the 

 vessel, 



CHAP. 56. THE VAEIOUS KINDS OF PEARLS. 



There is no doubt that pearls wear with use, and will change 

 their colour, if neglected. All their merit consists in their 

 whiteness, large size, roundness, polish, and weight ; qualities 

 which are not easily to be found united in the same ; so much 

 so, indeed, that no t-wo pearls are ever found perfectly alike ; 

 and it was from this circumstance, no doubt, that our Eoman 

 luxury first gave them the name of " unio," 33 or the unique 

 gem : for a similar name is not given them by the Greeks ; nor, 

 indeed, among the barbarians by whom they are found are 

 they called anything else but " margaritse." 34 Even in the very 

 whiteness of the pearl there is a great difference to be ob- 

 served. Those are of a much clearer water that are found in 

 the Bed Sea, 35 while the Indian pearl resembles in tint the 

 scales 36 of the mirror-stone, but exceeds all the others in size. 

 The colour that is most highly prized of all, is that of those 



81 " Nucleos." The Greek authors occasionally call them " stones" 

 and "bones." Tertullian calls them "maladies of shell-fish and warts" 

 "concharum vitia et verrucas." 



32 Cuvier says, that the most efficient mode of extracting all the con- 

 cretions that may happen to be concealed in the body of the animal, is to 

 leave the flesh to dissolve in water, upon which the concretions naturally 

 fall to the bottom. 



33 Isidorus and Solinus, however, say that the pearl is so called, because 

 two are never found together. The derivation given by Pliny is, however, 

 the more probable one. From the Latin "unio," comes our word 

 "onion;" which, like the pearl, consists of numerous coats, one laid 

 upon the other. 



34 Hence we must conclude that the word " margarita" is not of Greek, 

 but Eastern origin. 



35 JElian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says, that the Indian pearls, and 

 those which come from the Red Sea, are the best. 



36 The laminae of the lapis specularis, described by Pliny, B. xxxvi. 

 c. 45. 



