250 Natural History of Molluscous Animals : — 



they lie loose between it and the shell, or, lastly, they are 

 fixed to the latter by a kind of neck ; and it is said they do 

 not appear until the animal has reached its fourth year. They 

 have a beautiful lustre, which must be familiar to you, but 

 there is nothing peculiar in their chemical composition, con- 

 sisting merely of carbonate of lime. 



The Romans were extravagantly fond of these ornaments, 

 which claimed the first rank after the diamond ; and they 

 gave almost incredible prices for them. Julius Caesar pre- 

 sented Servilia, the mother of M. Brutus, with a pearl worth 

 48,417^. 105.; and Cleopatra, at a feast with Antony, of 

 which Pliny has given a long and interesting account, swal- 

 lowed one dissolved in vinegar of the value of 80,729Z. 3s. 4'd. 

 They wore them in great profusion, not only in the ears, and 

 on the fingers, head, and neck, but strung over the whole 

 body ; and the men as well as the ladies were thus adorned. 

 The naturalist, in deprecating this effeminacy, becomes elo- 

 quent, and in his censures there is something, perhaps, not 

 inapplicable to ourselves : — " Quid undis fluctibusque cum 

 vellere ? Non recte recipit haec nos rerum natura, nisi nudos. 

 Esto, si tanta ventri cum eo societas, quid tergori? Parum 

 est, nisi qui vescimur periculis, etiam vestiamur : adeo per to- 

 tum corpus, anima hominis qusesita maxime placent." * {Hist. 

 Nat., lib. IK. C.53.) 



The principal fisheries of this people were in the Red Sea, 

 the Gulf of Persia, and the Indian Ocean, the pearls from the 

 former places being the most highly valued as superior in size 

 and lustre ; and it is matter of history that Caesar was 

 induced to invade Britain from some exaggerated accounts he 

 had heard of the pearls of our coasts, or rather of our rivers ; 

 but if these were his object he was disappointed, for they 

 were found to be of a bad colour and inferior size, nor have 

 they improved in their reputation. 



Ceylon continues to be, as it was in the time of the Romans, 

 the most productive of these ornaments. The ancient fisheries 

 in the Red Sea, however, are now either exhausted or ne- 

 glected, and cities of the greatest celebrity have in conse- 

 quence sunk into insignificance or total ruin. Dahalac was 

 the chifef port of the pearl trade on the southern part of the 

 Red Sea, and Suakem on the north ; and under the Ptolemies, 



♦ " What have the waves to do with our garments? That element 

 does not rightly receive us unless we are naked. Grant that there is so 

 great a communion betwixt the sea and the belly, what has the sea to do 

 with the back ? It is not enough that our food is procured through perils, 

 if perils are not also encountered for our raiment. Thus in all that pertains 

 to the body, things acquired at the risk of human life are most pleasing." 



