BOOK IX. Lvi. iT4-Lvn. ii6 



the mere rattling together of the pearls ; and now-a- 

 days even poor people covet them — it is a common 

 saying that a pearl is as good as a lackey for a lady 

 when she walks abroad ! And they even use them 

 on their feet, and fix them not only to the laces 

 of their sandals but all over their shppers. In fact, 

 by this time they are not content with wearing 

 pearls unless they tread on them, and actually walk 

 on these unique gems ! 



There used to be commonly found in our own sea, provenanet 

 and more frequently on the coasts of the Thracian o/p^"^'*- 

 Bosphorus, small red gems contained in the shells 

 called mussels. But in Acarnania there grows what 

 is termed the sea-pen ; which shows that pearls are 

 not born in only one kind of shell, for Juba also 

 records that the Ai'abs have a shell resembhng a 

 toothed comb, that bristles Hke a hedgehog, and has 

 an actual pearl, resembhng a hailstone, in the fleshy 

 part; this kind of shell is not imported to Rome. 

 And there are not found in Acarnania the formei-ly 

 celebrated pearls of an exceptional size and almost 

 a marble colour. Better ones are found round 

 Actium, but these too are small, and in sea-board 

 Mauretania. Alexander the Encyclopaedist and 

 Sudines think that they grow old and let their colour 

 evaporate. 



LVII. It is clear that they are of a firm substance, PosiHonin 

 because no fall can break them. Also they are not ""* *'^''' 

 always found in the middle of the flesh, but in a 

 variety of places, and before now we have seen them 

 even at the extreme edges, as though in the act of 

 passing out of the shell ; and in some cases we have 

 seen four or five pearls in one shell. In weight few 

 specimens have hitherto exceeded half an ounce by 



241 



