436 PLINX's HATITEAi HISTOET. [Book IX.' 



shoes ;*' it is not enough to wear pearls, hut they must tread 

 •upon them, and walk with them under foot as well. 



Pearls used formerly to he found in our sea, hut more fre- 

 quently ahout the Thracian Bosporus :^' they were of a red 

 colour, and small, *^ and enclosed in a sheU-fish known hy the 

 name of " myes." In Acamania there is a sheU-fish called 

 "pina,"*° which produces pearls ; and from this it is quite 

 evident that it is not one kind of fish only that produces them. 

 Juba states also, that on the shores of Arabia there is a shell- 

 fish which resembles a notched comb, and covered all over with 

 hair** like a sea-urchin, and that the pearl lies imbedded in its 

 flesh, in appearance bearing a strong resemblance to a hail- 

 stone.?' Ho such sheU-fish, however, as these are ever brought to 

 Eome. Nor yet are any pearls of value found in Acamania, being 

 shapeless, rough, and of a marble hue ; those are better which 

 are found in the ■^cinity of Actium ; but stiQ they are small, 

 which is the case also with those found on the coast of Mauri- 

 tania. Alexander Polyhistor and Sudines''* are of opinion that 

 as they grow old their tints gradually fade. 



CHAP. 57. EEMAEKABIE FACTS CONNECTED WITH PEAELS 



THEIB ITATTJBE. 



It is quite clear that the interior of the pearl is solid, as no 

 fall is able to break it. Pearls are not always found in the 

 middle of the body of the animal, but sometimes in one place, 



*• Even on the " soeculus," or " soccus," a shoe or slipper which did not 

 require any " obstragulum," or tie. We find from Seueca, De Ben. B. ii. 

 c. 12, and Pliny, B. xxxvii. c. 6, that Caligula wore gold and pearls upon 

 bis socGuli. 



^' ^lian. Hist. Anim. B. xt. c. 8, states to this effect from Juba. 



" They are found also, Ajasson says, at the present day, in some of the 

 coldest rivers and torrents of Auvergue. 



" Or " pinna," the Greek name of this kind of pearl oyster. 



*6 Cuvier remarks, that he is here probably speaking of some spiny 

 bivalve, perhaps the Spondylns of Linnasus. 



« " Ghrandini." But Hardouin thinks, and probably correctly, that the 

 meaning here of the word is the " measles of swine ;" for Androsthenes, in 

 Athenseus, B. iii., has a similar passage, in which he says : "The stoue 

 (i. e. pearl) grows in the flesh of me shell-fish, just as the measles grow in 

 the flesh of swine." 



48 He is also mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 12, and B. xxxvii. cc. 9, 11, 23, 

 35, and 50, as a writer on gems; but nothing else seems to be known of 

 him. 



