228 PEARLS THEIR PRODUCTION. 



of large size can only be found in full-grown oysters. " It 

 is the nacral lining of the central cell that produces the lus- 

 tre peculiar to the pearl, which cannot be given to artificial 

 ones." * 



Probably from some vulgar observation, there early ori- 

 ginated a fancy that pearls were produced on St. John's 

 eve by drops of 



" rain from the sky, 

 Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea," 



or from dew-drops congealed and petrified in the oyster's 

 shell. Boethius thus states the theory : " These (pearl- 

 mussels) earlie in the morning, in the gentle, cleare, and 

 calme aire, lift up their upper shelles and mouthes a little 

 above the water, and there receive of the fine and pleasant 

 breath or dew of heaven, and afterwards according to the 

 measure and quantitie of this vitall force received, they 

 first conceive, then swell, and finallie produce the pearle." 

 This "elegant hypothesis," as a fair lady deems it, was 

 evidently congenial to the age which gave it birth, for it 

 grew and prospered until it found favour with many wise 

 and learned men, and became so diffused and popular that 

 the poets even ventured to make use of it, which they have 

 often done very prettily. f 



* Lect. Comp. Anatomy, v. 306, and Phil. Trans. 1826, p. 339. The 

 ancient opinions on the production of pearls are to be found in Rondelet 

 Hist, des Poiss. ii. 40. The shells containing the best pearls are old, and 

 have usually a wrinkled or corrugated appearance externally: hence we have 

 in Shakspeare, " Rich honesty dwells like a miser in a poor-house, as your 

 pearl in your foul oyster." As You Like It, act v. sc. 4. 



f And as was to be anticipated with some variations, for sometimes the 

 dew was made to fall only on the eve of St. John ; and oftener it fell, in the 

 shape of tears, from a mistress's or a maid's eye : 



" See these pearls that long have slept ; 

 These were tears by Naiads wept 

 For the loss of Marinal. 

 Tritons in the silver shell 

 Treasured them, till hard and white 

 As the teeth of Amphitrite." 



Bridal of' Triermain, iii. 26. 



It is curious to read with what serious gravity Bohadtch discusses this 

 fancy and its various modifications, which, of course, he disproves ! De 

 Anim. Mar. p. 39. The disproval needs not to prevent us quoting the fol- 

 lowing lines from Miss Pardoe's " Romance of the Harem :" 



" There was a bright and a sunny sky 



Spread over a laughing land, 

 But one small vapour was floating by, 



Where the wild wave kissed the strand ; 

 And as it passed o'er the ocean-swell, 

 A rain-drop from the dark cloud fell. 



