58 On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 



shores of Arabia, the Persian Gulf,* and the Red Sea were the most 

 perfect and the most celebrated. The mode of capturing them 

 seems to have varied little from that practised at the present day. 

 Divers were employed, who brought them to the surface in nets, and 

 they were packed in jars with salt till the animal was decayed. On 

 being taken out, the pearls were found at the bottom of the jars.f 

 Among the ancient philosophers, effects were continually attributed 

 to causes the most inconsistent and the most contrary to nature — in 

 fact, merely wild or fanciful guesses. Many were of course made 

 as to the origin of these substances. The general opinion appears 

 to have been, that they were formed by drops of dew falling into 

 the shell, for which purpose it periodically rose to the surface ; and 

 Pliny gravely informs us that if the atmosphere was thick at the 

 time, they were dark and clouded ; if it was clear, they were white 

 and brilliant. It is singular that the same opinion is found to prevail 

 at the present day among the natives of Ceylon, and very similar to 

 it, is the account of their formation recorded in one of the Sanscrit 

 books of the Brahmins. J The same fancy also exists in the inte- 

 rior of Hindoostan.|j ^^. 



The nacre was manufactured into boxes for the preservation of 

 sweet perfumes and precious ointments. 



Of the pearls of ancient times, those belonging to Cleopatra are 

 certainly the most celebrated, and though there is reason for believ- 

 ing that the account of her dissolving one of them in vinegar and 

 drinking it to Antony's health at supper is an historical fiction, yet 

 that a pearl or pearls of great value were in her possession is pretty 

 certain. In Pliny's time, the two halves of a magnificent pearl, said 

 to have been the fellow to the one destroyed, were hung in the ears 

 of the statue of Venus Genetrix in the Pantheon. This author esti- 

 mates the value of it at a sum equal to ^375,000. Other persons 

 are also reported to have dissolved pearls and treated their guests 

 to the same expensive draught. Julius Caesar gave £48,437 for 

 one, which he presented to one of his mistresses. *§> 



There was so much difficulty in obtaining pearls of exactly the 

 same size and color, that the Roman ladies, about the time of the 



* As early as B. C. 311, the Persian Gulf was famous for them. — Macpherson's 

 Annals of Commerce, I. 83. 

 t Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ix. cap. 35. t Asiatic Researches, V. 410, Lend. ed. 



II Forbes' Oriental Memoirs, II. 235. 

 § Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, I. 144. 



