BOOK IX. Liii. 105-LIV. 108 



what has it to do with our backs .'' Are we not 

 content to feed on dangers without also being clothed 

 with them ? Is it that the rule that we get most 

 satisfaction from luxuries costing a human Hfe to 

 procure holds good for the whole of our anatomy ? 



LIV. The first place therefore and the topmost PenrU. 

 rank among all things of price is held by pearls. 

 These are sent chiefly by the Indian Ocean, among 

 the huge and curious animals that we have desci-ibed" 

 as coming across all tliose seas over that wide 

 expanse of lands from those burning heats of the 

 sun. And to procure them for the Indians as well, 

 men go to the islands — and those quite few in 

 number : the most productive is Ceylon, and also 

 Stoidis, as we said* inourcircuitof the world, andalso 

 the Indian promontory of Perimula ; but those round 

 Arabia on the Persian Gulf of the Red Sea are 

 specially pi*aised. 



The source and breeding-ground of pearls are Thepeari- 

 shells not much difFering from oyster-shells. These, ""'^ 

 we are told^^^when stimulated by the generative season 

 of the year gape open as it were and are filled with 

 dewy pregnancy, and subsequently when heavy are 

 delivered, and the offspring of the shells are pearls 

 that correspond to the quahty of the dew received : 

 if it was a pure inflow, their brilHance is conspicuous 

 but if it was turbid, the product also becomes dirty in 

 colour. Also if the sky is lowering (they say) the pearl 

 is pale in colour : for it is certain that it was conceived 

 from the sky, and that pearls have more connexion 

 with the sky than with the sea, and derive from it a 

 cloudy hue, or a clear one corresponding with a 

 brilhant morning. If they are well fed in due season, 

 the offspring also grows in size. If there is hghtning, 



235 



