52 Pearls. 



poetically expressed in the following lines translated 

 from the Lapidariiim of Marbodus, a writer of the 

 first century, a.d. — 



•' At certain seasons do the oysters lie 

 With valves wide gaping t' ward the teeming sky 

 And seize the falling dews, and pregnant breed 

 The shining globules of th' Ethereal seed." 



The assumed connexion between the character 

 of the Pearl and the atmospheric influences which 

 ruled at the time of its formation, finds expression 

 in the following couplet from the same poem : — 



" Brighter the offspring of the morning dew; 

 The evening yields a duskier birth to view." 



Other writers again give rather fuller details of the 

 process of Pearl formation, and inform us that — *' On 

 the sixteenth day of the month, Nisan, the oysters 

 rise to receive the rain drops, which are afterwards 

 made into Pearls." 



This curious legend probably furnishes us with 

 a clue to the nature of the gem translated Bdellium, 

 mentioned in the description of the Garden of 

 Eden, {Qs^w. ii., 12) and already alluded to in the 

 introductory chapter of this work. Benjamin of 

 Polida, when writing of the Indian Seas in the 

 vicinity of Kathipha (Ethiopia), says '' The stone 

 called BdeUius is found made by wonderful work- 

 manship of nature, for on the twenty-fourth day 



