Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 73 



they visited. Not only were the highly-prized marine 

 pearls sought for, but also those from the freshwater pearl 

 mussels of the family Unionidae. 



The Red Sea is probably the most ancient of the 

 known sources of pearls. Gems from this neighbourhood 

 were known many centuries before the Christian era, and 

 the fishery was in a flourishing condition in the time of 

 the Ptolemies. These pearls are referred to by Strabo, 

 ./Elianus, and other classical writers. 3 The most inter- 

 esting feature in connection with these fisheries is the fact 

 that the ancient inhabitants of the shores of the Red Sea 

 were acquainted with an artificial method of producing 

 pearls. According to the philosopher Apollonius, 4 the 

 inhabitants rendered the sea smooth by flooding it with 

 oil ; they then dived into the sea and halting alongside 

 the pearl-oyster they induced it to open by holding out a 

 case of myrrh before it as a bait. The oyster was then 

 pierced with a long pin and the liquid which exuded from 

 the wound was received into an iron block which was 

 hollowed out in regular holes, where it petrified in regular 

 shapes, just like the natural pearl. Though the details as 

 to the method of procedure are scarcely credible, it is 

 not improbable that the story has some sound founda- 

 tion, and that attempts were really made at that early 

 time to stimulate the growth of pearls. This interesting 

 fact is of some importance in connection with the artificial 

 production of pearls in India and China, to which atten- 

 tion is called on later pages. 



From the proximity of the Red Sea to Egypt it is not 

 surprising that the pearl-shell was known to the Egyptians 



3 Kun/, and Stevenson, "The Book of the Pearl/' Neiv York, 1908, 

 pp. I39.vty. 



4 Philostratus, " The Life of Apollonius of Tyana," bk. iii., ch. Ivii. 

 (Edit. Conybeare, vol. i., 1912, p. 343). 



