THE OTSTEE. 93 



mens. The late Emperor of Eussia used to purchase for 

 his wife — of whom he was exceedingly fond, and who 

 has lately joined him in that bourne from which neither 

 traveller, emperor, king, nor beggar ever returns — 

 the veiy finest pearl he could procure : a virgin pearl 

 and a perfect sphere was what he sought, for he would 

 not have any that had been worn by others. After five- 

 and-twenty years' search, he presented to the Empress 

 such a necklace as had never been seen before. 



Immense prices have been given and are still given 

 for pearls. Julius Caesar, in love with the mother of 

 Marcus Brutus, is said to have presented her with a pearl 

 worth £48,417 lOs., which we can believe or not, ac- 

 cording to our natures. Cleopatra, as all the world has 

 read, drank, dissolved in vinegar, a pearl which cost 

 £80,729 of our money, and, as we know from Shaks- 

 peare, Marc Antony sent to her '* a treasure of an oyster" 

 of wondrous beauty. Clodius, the glutton (surely a 

 gourmet, not a gourmand), swallowed one worth £8072 

 1 8s. One of the modem pearls was bought by Tavemier 

 at Catifa, and sold by him to the Shah of Persia for 

 £110,000 ; another was obtained by Philip II. of Spain, 

 off the Columbian coast, which weighed 250 carats, and 

 was valued at 14,400 ducats, which is equal to about 

 £13,996. 



Pliny, the naturalist, tells us of a pearl which was 

 valued at £80,000 sterling. That which Philip II. had 

 was nearly as large as a pigeon's egg. Pliny's was 

 somewhat smaller. Put size is not alone the test of 

 value. Shape and form must be taken into considera- 

 tion. Some pearls are very curiously misshapen, and of 



