

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 77 



north-east coast of Portuguese East Africa, was inhabited 

 by a Semitic colony, which located there to fish for pearls, 

 and these were carried through the Red Sea to King 

 Solomon. He adds that there is little doubt that, after 

 the great emigration which started from the Persian Gulf 

 in 982 and founded Zanzibar, Kilvva, and Sofala on the 

 coast, some Arabs engaged in fishing for pearls about the 

 islands near Sofala." 



The evidence of early pearl fishing on the coast of 

 East Africa is significant in view of the implied association 

 between megalithic culture and pearls. In the map which 

 illustrates Mr. Perry's paper (op. cit., p. 10), the presence of 

 the pearl-shell is not indicated on the coasts of Zanzibar 

 and Madagascar " two localities which are suggestive when 

 the presence of megalithic monuments in Rhodesia and 

 Madagascar is recalled" (p. u). Another important link 

 is afforded by the discovery of beads made from the shell 

 of the common Unio or fresh-water mussel (Unto verreauxi) 

 in graves in the vicinity of Bulawayo, Rhodesia 1 " 



The Persian Gulf has been famous as a source of 

 pearls from ancient times. A very early origin of pearl 

 fishing here seems to be indicated by a cuneiform in- 

 scription on a broken obelisk, erected presumably by a 

 king of Nineveh, which has been translated by Jules 

 Oppert, the eminent Assyriologist. 17 The fisheries were 

 well known in the time of Alexander, and are referred to 

 by Pliny 18 as yielding the most valuable pearls. Isidorus 

 of Charace, a Greek historian, circa 300 B.C., mentions 

 the pearl fishing in this neighbourhood in his account of 

 the Parthian Empire, and gives a fanciful story of the 

 influence of thunderstorms on the breeding of pearls. :;t 



Kunx and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 513. 



17 Ibid., p. 85. 



18 Pliny, "N.H.," bk. ix., ch. 54. 



1 u Athena-Mis, " Deipnos,'' bk. iii., ch. 46. 



