Chap. 56.] PEARLS. 435 



which are thence called alum-coloured 37 pearls. Long pearls 

 also have their peculiar value ; those are called " elenchi," 

 which are of a long tapering shape, resembling our alabaster 38 

 boxes -in form, and ending in a full bulb. 39 Our ladies 

 quite glory in having these suspended from their fingers, or 

 two or three of them dangling from their ears. For the pur- 

 pose of ministering to these luxurious tastes, there are various 

 names and wearisome refinements which have been devised by 

 profuseness and prodigality ; for after inventing these ear-rings, 

 they have given them the name of " crotalia," 40 or castanet 

 pendants, as though quite delighted even with the rattling of 

 the pearls as they knock against each other ; and now, at the 

 present day, the poorer classes are even affecting them, as 

 people are in the habit of saying, that " a pearl worn by a 

 woman in public, is as good as a lictor 41 walking before her." 

 Nay, even more than this, they put them on their feet, and 

 that, not only on the laces of their sandals, but all over the 



37 " Exaluminatos." It is clear from this passage that Pliny was ac- 

 quainted with our alum, as he here clearly implies that the alum known 

 to him was of a white colour. Beckmann, however, in his History of 

 Inventions, asserts that our alum was certainly not known to the Greeks 

 and Romans, and that their " alumen" was nothing else but vitriol, the 

 green sulphate of iron, and that not in its pure state, but such as forms 

 in mines. Pereira, however, in his Materia Medica, says, that there can 

 be little douht that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, but did not dis- 

 tinguish it from sulphate of iron, as he informs us that one kind of alum 

 was white, and was used for dyeing wool of various colours. It is men- 

 tioned more fully in B. xxxv. c. 52, where he speaks of its use in dyeing. 



38 These alabaster boxes for unguents are mentioned by Pliny in 

 B. xxxvi. c. 12. They were usually pear-shaped; and as they were held 

 with difficulty in the hand, on account of their extreme smoothness, they 

 were called a\d(3aaTpa, from a, " not," and Xa/3&(r9at, " to be held." 

 The reader will recollect the offer made to our Saviour, of the " alabaster 

 box of ointment of spikenard, very precious.'* Matt. xxvi. 7. Mark 

 xiv. 3. 



39 Seneca, Benef. B. vii. c. 9, speaks of them as hanging in tiers from 

 the ears of the Roman matrons, two and two; and he says that they are 

 not satisfied unless they have two or three patrimonies suspended from each 

 ear. 



40 From their resemblance to " crotala," used by dancers, and similar to 

 our castanets. 



41 That the pearls as fully bespeak the importance of the wearer, as the 

 lictor does of the magistrate whom he is preceding. The honour of being 

 escorted by one or two lictors, was usually granted to the wives and other 

 members of the imperial family. 



JF F 2 



