4^ Pearls. 



so in Florida, the graves of the kings were deco- 

 rated with Pearls. Soto's soldiers found in one of 

 their temples, great wooden coffins, in which the 

 dead lay embalmed, and beside them were small 

 baskets full of Pearls. The temple of Tolomecco, 

 however, was the richest in Pearls ; its high walls 

 and roof were of Mother-of-Pearl, while strings of 

 Pearls, and plumes of feathers hung round the walls ; 

 over the coffins of their kings, hung their shields, 

 crowned with Pearls, and in the centre of the temple 

 stood vases full of costly Pearls. 



To return to the history of Pearls in Europe ; 

 we find them much worn both by men and women 

 during the i6th and 17th centuries. Marie de Medici, 

 wife of Henry IV. of France, wore at the christening 

 of her son (1601) a gorgeous dress ornamented with 

 3,000 diamonds and 32,000 Pearls, valued at 60,000 

 crov/ns. 



The Elector Maximilian of Bavaria, in 1635, 

 sent his bride, the daughter of the Emperor 

 Ferdinand II., a present of a string of 300 selected 

 Pearls each of which cost 1,000 gulden (about ;^ioo). 



Table decorations were also very magnificent 

 at that time, and Charles II. of Spain, in 1680, pre- 

 sented his wife with an ornament in the form of 

 a salad, in which the leaves were represented 



