CAEDIADJE. COCKLE. 47 



hooJ gather up at low-water, and sell at all prices/ 7 

 The natives of India have a similar belief with regard 

 to the origin of pearls, viz. that they are congealed 

 dewdrops, which Buddha in certain months showers 

 upon the earth, when they are caught up by the oysters 

 whilst floating on the waters to breathe.* 



The Asiatics have also an idea that the pearls found 

 in certain shellfish are produced from drops of rain- 

 water, which they imbibe : 



" Who spread out the earth on the face of the water, 

 And form'd precious pearls from the tears of the clouds !"f 



The natives of Java have a still stranger belief that 

 the pearls themselves breed and increase if placed in 

 cotton, and they sell what they term " breeding pearls" 

 for this purpose, affecting to distinguish the male 

 from the female. Those pearls which are clustered 

 together in the form of a blackberry, are said by them 

 to be thus produced. Nor is this belief peculiar to 

 Java, as a Spanish lady informed a friend of mine, 

 that, if seed-pearls were shut up in cotton-wool, they 

 would increase either in size or in number ? The ex- 

 perience of our jewellers is, that the effect of cotton- 

 wool on pearls is to injure their colour, and make them 

 yellow. But it is said to preserve them, if they are 

 kept in a box with a piece of the root of ash, or in dry 

 magnesia. The tears of Chinese mermaids are said to 

 be pearls. J 



Shakespeare says, 



" Love's feeling is more soft and sensitive 

 Than are the horns of cockled snails." 



* ' Household Words/ vol. iii. p. 80, " My Pearl-fishing Expedition." 

 -f- Forbes, * Oriental Memoirs/ vol. iii. p. 180. 

 J ' StiMii^e Njtes from a Chinese Studio.' 



