436 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book IX. 



shoes ; 4 * it is not enough to wear pearls, but they must tread 

 upon them, and walk with them under foot as well. 



Pearls used formerly to be found in our sea, but more fre.- 

 quently about the Thracian Bosporus ; 43 they were of a red 

 colour, and small, 44 and enclosed in a shell-fish known by the 

 name of " myes." In Acarnania there is a shell-fish called 

 " pina," 45 which produces pearls ; and from this it is quite 

 evident that it is not one kind of fish only that produces them. 

 Juba states also, that on the shores of Arabia there is a shell- 

 fish which resembles a notched comb, and covered all over with 

 hair 46 like a sea-urchin, and that the pearl lies imbedded in its 

 flesh, in appearance bearing a strong resemblance to a hail- 

 stone. 47 No such shell-fish, however, as these are ever brought to 

 Rome. Nor yet are any pearls of value found in Acarnania, being- 

 shapeless, rough, and of a marble hue ; those are better which 

 are found in the vicinity of Actiurn ; but still they are small, 

 which is the case also with those found on the coast of Mauri- 

 tania. Alexander Polyhistor and Sudines 48 are of opinion that 

 as they grow old their tints gradually fade. 



CHAP. 57. REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH PEARLS 



THEIR NATURE. 



It is quite clear that the interior of the pearl is solid, as no 

 fall is able to break it. Pearls are not always found in the 

 middle of the body of the animal, but sometimes in one place, 



42 Even on the " socculus," or " soccus," a shoe or slipper which did not 

 require any "obstragulum," or tie. We find from Seneca, De Ben. B. ii. 

 c. 12, and Pliny, B. xxxvii. c. 6, that Caligula wore gold and pearls upon 

 his socculi. 



43 ^Elian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, states to this effect from Juba. 



44 They are found also, Ajasson says, at the present day, in some of the 

 coldest rivers and torrents of Auvergne, 



45 Or " pinna," the Greek name of this kind of pearl oyster. 



46 Cuvier remarks, that he is here prohably speaking of some spiny 

 bivalve, perhaps the Spondylus of Linnaeus. 



47 Grandini." But Hardouin thinks, and Drobablv correctlv. that the 



meaning nere ot tne word is tne " measles oi swine ;" tor Androsthenes, in 

 Athenseus, B. iii., has a similar passage, in which he says : " The stone 

 (i. e. pearl) grows in the flesh of the shell-fish, just as the measles grow in 

 the flesh of swine." 



48 He is also mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 12, and B. xxxvii. cc. 9, 11, 23, 

 35, and 50, as a writer on gems ; but nothing else seems to be known of 

 him. 



