Distribution of Feails and Pearl-sliell. 105 



with the pearly nacre, and the mussels are taken out of 

 the water, and the " pearls " detached by a sharp knife. 

 The matrices used vary in form and substance, the most 

 common being pellets of mud. Another class consists of 

 small images, especially of Buddha, in the usual sitting 

 position, or sometimes of a fish ; they are made of lead, 

 cast very thin. The invention of the art is attributed to 

 a native of the place, named Ye-jin-yang, to whom a 

 temple has been erected, in which divine honours are paid 

 to his image. Me is said to have lived about a.d. 1200 — 

 1300. The topography of Chihkiang mentions a pearl 

 sent to Court in 490 A.D., which resembled Buddha, being 

 three inches in size. The resemblance, however, may have 

 been fanciful ; the "pearls" now made are but half-an-inch 

 long. 



Other writers have given similar accounts of this 

 curious industry, but the most remarkable is that related 

 by Mary Roberts in her little book on the " Popular 

 History of the Mollusca" (1851, pp. 275-6). She tells 

 us that in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks were 

 " several Chinese Chama; [? Unio\ in the shells of which 

 were contained bits of iron wire, covered \yith a substance 

 of a pearly nature. These wires had evidently once been 

 sharp, and it seemed as if the moUusks, anxious to secure 

 themselves against the intrusion of such unwelcome 

 visitors, had encrusted, and thus rendered blunt, the 

 points with which the)' came in contact." She concludes 

 by remarking : " may not, therefore, the process employed 

 hi past ages be still practised.' And are we not authorized 

 in conjecturing that these bits of iron, which probably 

 had slipped from the hands of the Chinese workmen, and 

 remained in the animal, resembled the spikes noticed by 

 Philostratus as being used by the ancient people who 

 inhabited the banks of the Red Sea, for the purpose of 



