222 TROPIC DAYS 



Some say that the jewel cast away so majestically 

 was one of a pair which Cleopatra wore as ear-rings, 

 and that when Antony restrained his hostess from a 

 repetition of the draught, she presented the now match- 

 less pearl to him. Another version implies that the 

 ear-ring had been originally one monster pearl, which 

 Cleopatra had caused to be sawn in two to gratify her 

 lust for unique and lavish ornament. 



It is said, too, that the pearl was dissolved in wine. 

 By a simple practical test and at the sacrifice of a small 

 quantity of baroque, proof was obtained that ordinary 

 culinary vinegar is a solvent of pearls. The experiment 

 also 3'ielded these notable conclusions — that either the 

 wine of Cleopatra's age was much more corrosive than 

 the vinegar of ours, or that the costly beverage was 

 prepared beforehand, or that the stately banquet was 

 long-drawn-out while the inestimable gem spluttered 

 and simmered in the goblet. The dissolution of such 

 a large pearl must have been slow, and the product far 

 from nice, but it was one of the effects by which a 

 sovereign woman conquered the "most courteous lord" 

 of his day. 



A curious superstition prevails in some parts of the 

 East Indies, it being beheved that if gold and pearls 

 are placed by themselves in a packet they will certainly 

 decrease in quantity or number, and in the end totally 

 disappear; but if a few grains of rice are added, the 

 treasure is safe. Rice is thought not onl}^ to preserve 

 the original number of pearls, but to actually cause 

 increase. 



Tarnished pearls are occasionally submitted to the 

 process of "skinning" — the removal with fine steel files 

 under a magnifying glass of the outer layer, on the 

 chance of the existence of a better underneath. The 

 ancients treated lustrelesi gems differently, placing them 



